Are you listening?

"He who has ears, let him hear.”

And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it."(Mt. 13:9-17)

"He who has ears, let him hear.”  
 Christ uses this expression at least 5 separate times in the gospels.  As we can see plainly from this reading, he is not referring to mere auditory acuity, but rather to the openness of the heart to receive the message.

Reading about so many of those in the church hierarchy (of various stripes), this passage rings true to me.  Their hearts have become dull, their vision dim and their hearing deafened to the Word.  They have become captive to the letter of the law and no longer see the spirit in which the laws were written. Ironically, most cannot see that this has even happened and are happy to quote chapter and verse as to why they are justified in being exactly as those whom Christ decried.

On the other hand, many people today function in a post-modernist world where there are no absolutes and Truth as an objective entity does not exist.  These people may hear the Word, but cannot listen, see it but do not perceive the Truth.  I believe that this is the kernel of wisdom in the Vatican's refutation of 'modernism' and 'secularism'. (note that many consider post-modernism to be an evolutionary development of modernism and is part of the same movement with the underlying premises of relativistic and atheistic thought). 

Note that Christ does not call those people wicked or foolish, but says that prophets and the righteous are counted in the deaf and blind.

So, on the one hand we have an aging group of well-meaning religious folk who appear to no longer hear the Truth being spoken and, on the other hand, a group of people who are so detached from the natural world that don't understand the Truth when it is given to them. 

Thus, you use parables.  I recall a discussion about the use of parables where it was highlighted to me their importance.  As the conscious mind wrestles with the wording and structure of the parable, the meaning is allowed to slip past that gatekeeper and into the deeper mind, delivering the message.  While you consider that, let me tell you a story....