INTRODUCTION

"The oldest style of story is the myth. Pure and simple, it's the fabrication about the origins of our race and our world, though not always as elaborated as we find it in the book of Genesis. Alongside it arose Aesop's fables. Aesop, according to the historian Herodotus, was a slave who lived in the mid-sixth century before Christ, about the same time as one of the Genesis stories was circulating. Grimm's fairy tales and the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century Danish storyteller, have almost the same appeal - the color, aroma, taste - as the short story and novel. The parables of Jesus belong to this great classic literature, and excel it."

Joseph Fichtner, OSC
Many Things in Parables
Reflections for Life

"The importance of these gems of Jesus is illustrated by their prominence in His overall ministry. He communicated one-third of His sayings in story form. This suggests how impossible it is to get a true grasp of His message apart from the parables. Much of His teachings on the kingdom, in act, was given in this way. And since His kingdom program underlies the New Testament, the full impact of the gospel is blunted without them. We, therefore, come to the heart of the Lord's ministry when we listen again to His captivating parables on the kingdom."

Stanley Ellisen
PARABLES in the EYE of the STORM

Parables point to the kingdom. They are, indeed, the "arrows of God." They pierce us and make us painfully aware of our need to change the way we relate to ourselves, others, and God. We look and we see. This is how we must live in God's kingdom. We are called, and know ourselves called.

Megan McKenna
Parables
The Arrows of God