In this sermon, we consider why our Lord spoke in parables. And, we also reflect upon the fact that the parables (and all great literature) cannon be boiled down to a simple moral - the meaning is the whole story. As when people asked Flannery O'Connor what her stories meant, she replied, "If I could have said it more clearly, I would have!"
So Our Lord cab assure us that if there were a way we could have understood more clearly, he would have used that means. But the parables are suited to our lowliness and ignorance, and they pierce the hardness of our hearts to bring us to conversion.
Also, the parables require us to look to the apostles and the bishops of the Church for the proper interpretation - in this way, the hierarchy of the Church is intended.
Listen online [here]!