Mt 13:24-25,37-39 He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 12:14-17 But the Pharisees went out and took counsel against him to put him to death. When Jesus realized this, he withdrew from that place. Many people followed him, and he cured them all, but he warned them not to make him known. This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Isaiah the prophet.
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 12:1-3,8 At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath.”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 11:25-26 At that time Jesus said in reply, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.”
Podcast Episode: Catholic School Tuition Assistance
Pip: Christian Schools Foundation — where the Knights are changing the world one student at a time, and the Gospel turns out to be a pretty solid curriculum.
Mara: CSF has been posting a steady stream of scripture-grounded reflections tied to Christian Schools Foundation’s mission of Catholic school tuition assistance — covering the sending of the Twelve, the cost of discipleship under pressure, and Jesus teaching in parables by the sea.
Pip: Let’s start with the mission itself — Jesus sending out the Twelve, and what that has to do with K-12 kids today.
The Harvest and the Laborers
Mara: The frame here is a question CSF returns to constantly: what does it mean to be sent, and who does the sending?
Pip: Matthew 9 sets the stakes directly — “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”
Mara: That’s the theological ground CSF stands on — scarcity of workers, urgency of mission, and a call to prayer that something be done about it.
Pip: The subsequent passages from Matthew 10 sharpen that call. First the Twelve receive authority, then they receive instructions — go to the lost sheep, proclaim the kingdom, and if a town won’t receive you, shake the dust off and move on.
Mara: The progression matters. Authority comes before the road, and the road has real conditions attached to it — including the sobering warning about Sodom and Gomorrah for towns that refuse to listen. Now, what happens when the laborers actually face resistance?
Sent Like Sheep Among Wolves
Pip: This is where the missionary mandate gets uncomfortable — Jesus does not promise a smooth reception, and Matthew 10 does not soften that.
Mara: The anchor passage puts it plainly: “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”
Pip: So the instruction is not to wait for safety — it is to speak precisely because the truth will surface anyway.
Mara: The passage from Matthew 10:16 reinforces that: “I am sending you like sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and simple as doves.” Family bonds will fracture, hatred will follow the name — but whoever endures to the end will be saved.
Pip: That is a hard promise. Not comfort now, but vindication eventually.
Mara: And then Matthew 10:34 pushes further — “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” Loyalty to Christ is placed above every other loyalty, and receiving the messenger means receiving the one who sent them.
Pip: Which circles back to CSF’s whole premise — the messenger matters, and so does the school that shapes them. Speaking of formation, the next passage shifts to how Jesus actually taught.
Teaching the Crowd From a Boat
Pip: Matthew 13 changes the scene entirely — Jesus is no longer sending, he is sitting, and the crowd is so large he teaches from a boat offshore.
Mara: The passage captures both the method and the reason: “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.'”
Pip: Parables are not simplifications — they are a diagnostic. The capacity to receive teaching determines how much teaching takes root.
Mara: Which is exactly why access to formation matters. The parable assumes a listener ready to hear — and CSF’s tuition assistance work is, in part, about making sure more students get the chance to be that listener.
Pip: Sending, enduring, teaching from a boat — the throughline is that none of this is passive.
Mara: The mission asks for laborers, the road asks for courage, and the parable asks for ears that are actually open. More to come.
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 11:20,23-24 Then he began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented. “And as for you, Capernaum:‘ Will you be exalted to heaven?, You will go down to the netherworld.’ For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 10:34,37,40 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 13:1-2,12-13 “On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’”
CSF provides tuition assistance to K-12 children to attend Catholic schools.
Mt 10:26-27,32-33 “Therefore do not be afraid of them. Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed, nor secret that will not be known. What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops. Everyone who acknowledges me before others I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father. But whoever denies me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”
