First Reading - Isaiah 55:10-11
Second Reading - Romans 8:18-23
Gospel - Matthew 13:1-23
The readings of today invite us to allow the Word of God to transform ourselves.
The prophecies collected in Isaiah, chapters 40-55, are known as the Book of Consolation. Written for the exiles who would return from Babylon to Judah, the chapters are meant to comfort a dispirited people. There are promises of fertile land and restoration, water for the thirsty, and secure defense against enemies as the result of Yahweh’s power, and mercy. What Isaiah means is that, like rain and snow which water the earth so that seeds may sprout and grow, God’s word will accomplish its purpose, in this case, to return the exiles to their homes in peace. Their return will be an everlasting memorial to the power of Yahweh’s word. Thus, today’s passage promises spiritual fertility. It implies that God will make the peoples’ religious lives fruitful, as He has done for their land. And it could bespeak a promise that God will make fruitful the work of the prophet, whose job it is to proclaim His word. In this reading and in today’s Gospel, we are assured that God shares His abundance with us and that His plans will not be frustrated. That is why Jesus in today’s Gospel talks about the wonderful effects on human life from the rain-like Word of God.
In the second reading, descriptions of our spiritual distress are combined with descriptions of nature’s distress. Following in Jesus’ footsteps, Paul reminds the community in Rome of their obligation to trust God’s word. But he does not use Isaiah’s farming imagery. Instead, Paul states that the sin of Adam has brought corruption both to humankind and to nature. Genesis 3:14-19 describes nature turning against the convicted Adam and Eve. For Paul, then, what God is doing for us in Christ will redeem, not just mankind, but nature too. Paul uses agricultural imagery when he explains to his readers that they enjoy “the first fruits of the Spirit.” Paul advises us to be patient in awaiting redemption and the kingdom.
The gospel imparts a powerful message of the word of God through the parable of the sower. The word “parable” comes from the Greek word parabole, which means putting two things side by side in order to confront or compare them. And that is exactly how Jesus uses parables: He places a simile from life or nature against the abstract idea of the reign of God. Jesus’ parable of the seed sown in various soil types was an attempt to boost the morale of his frustrated disciples. They were upset and discouraged because they realized that their master was facing opposition and hostility from the scribes, Pharisees, and priests. The synagogues refused to admit him to preach, so, Jesus had to go to beaches and hillsides. Some of the Pharisees were planning to trap him, and the common people were more interested in his ability to heal them than in his preaching. Using the parable of the sower in today’s Gospel, Jesus assures his confused disciples that the “Good News” he is preaching will produce the intended effect in spite of opposition and controversy. Matthew may have included this parable in his Gospel, because his own Judeo-Christian community had experienced similar adverse reactions from their fellow-Jews, just as people today are frustrated in their attempt to live the Gospel in our consumerist, hedonist, secularist, materialist, atheistic/agnostic society.
According to the traditional Palestinian farming practices, sowing often precedes plowing. We can assume that the sower intends to come back and plow the seeds into the soil. This parable is a story of God’s prodigality, sowing seeds right and left, in abundant measure, so that we may constantly receive the word in our hearts from a merciful and generous sower. God is always scattering the seeds of His kingdom around us whether we deserve them or not, so that when the soil of our hearts is ready for the seed to germinate, the seed is already there. Even the tiniest seed of God’s love can produce in us a harvest beyond our imagining. The Church is prodigal too, proclaiming the Gospel among primitive tribes in far-away jungles and among teenage gangs in urban ghettos, trusting in the power of the word of God which is described as a “sharp sword” (Is 49:2), “two-edged sword” (Heb 4: 12), and “fire and hammer” (Jer 23: 29). In other words, God’s Word is powerful – and, as we know, no power exists that can frustrate it.
The yield depends on soil type: A good spiritual yield in life depends on how fully and willingly a person accepts and responds to the word of the Lord. God’s word never blossoms alongside greed, snobbishness, self-centeredness, and love of the “easy life.” Christ is the sower, and while we desire to be good soil, we know there are times when we are shallow, like the depth of soil along the path. There are areas of rock in our lives where God’s word has not taken root, and there are areas where God’s word finds difficulty in taking root. In his parable of the sower, Jesus uses four different soil-types to represent four separate responses people can give to God’s saving word. In fact, each one of us may display all four different types of soil at various time in our personal lives.
1) The soil along the path. This soil is too hard to absorb the seed. Soon the birds eat it up or passers-by trample it under- foot. Jesus explains that this soil is like the person who hears the word of God without letting it sink in. The seed/word is then replaced by worldly concerns. This type of soil represents people whose hearts and/or minds are closed because of laziness, prejudice, fear, pride, the business of this world, or immoral living. You and I are called to “sow” God’s word in our children, and to live out the values that Jesus “sowed” in us through his Church; but first we must open our hardened hearts and become true disciples (CCC #546).
2) The soil on flat circular pieces of limestone. This soil-type represents emotional people who are always looking for novelties but never take a permanent interest in anything. Jesus explains that this kind of person is at first impressed by the message but quickly loses interest because of the effort needed to keep the word alive. We have the example of a group of disciples who followed Jesus for a long time until the day he announced that he was the “bread of life.” They found that teaching “too hard to accept” and just drifted away.
3) The soil filled with weeds: This soil represents people addicted to evil habits and tendencies and those whose hearts are filled with hatred, jealousy, fear, and greed. They are interested only in acquiring money by any means and in enjoying life in any way possible. Jesus explains that these people are filled with worldly interests that undermine them. The classic example is Judas who follows Jesus for a long time, but in the end, it seems, could not let go of his worldly interests and so exchanged his Lord for earthly silver.
4) The good soil. This soil-type represents the people who hear the word of God and diligently keep it. They have open hearts filled with holiness and humility. They are eager to hear the word and ready to put it into practice. They are attentive to the Holy Spirit. Fortunately, the Gospel is filled with people who have accepted the Lord’s message and whose lives have been changed. In them, Jesus’ words, in spite of obstacles and barriers, will produce the Kingdom. Although the seed may seem scattered at random, it will nevertheless produce amazing results: thirty-fold, sixty-fold – even a hundred-fold, an enormous yield with modern farming methods, let alone with those of first century Palestine.
Dear friends, the questions we need to ask ourselves are: Am I merely hearing God’s word without understanding it? Does God’s word meet with a hard heart in me? Am I too anxious about money, security, provision for retirement or old age? Is God’s word not taking root in me? Not converting me? Not transforming me? Not enabling me to sacrifice? And what about the “fruits” that we are being invited to produce: justice and mercy, hospitality for the immigrant and those with AIDS, the dispossessed, the unborn, the single mother? By refusing to consider these things, we may be missing the healing that the Word of God can bring into our lives. The parable of the sower challenges us to see how deeply the word of God has taken root in our lives, how central God is to the very fabric of our day-to-day life. Jesus also invites his followers to embrace the Faith of the sower: to trust and believe that our simplest acts of kindness and forgiveness, our humblest offers of help to anyone in need, may be the seeds that fall “on good soil” and yield an abundant harvest.
How do we respond to the Word of God and to the various Acts of God in our lives? Do we allow the trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us? Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers? Do we decide, because things are not working out the way we think they ought, that God doesn’t care for us, or that He is powerless, weak, and not to be heeded? Do we allow the cares of this world, our ambitions, or our desires for success and happiness, to choke out the messages that God sends us through the various events of our daily lives and through the various people we encounter? How we respond to the Word of God is the key to how fruitful the Gospel is going to be in our lives. Unlike the situation in nature, we can, as it were, change the kind of soil that we are. God allows the seed to land on the hard paths, on the rocky ground, and in the thickets of our lives in the hope that in those places it will find a place to mature and bear fruit, that those things which impede growth will be removed, and that the soil may be just a little deeper than it at first appears to be in those rocky places. Jesus challenges us in the parable of the sower to sow seeds of encouragement, joy, and reconciliation regardless of how unpromising the “soil” on which it is scattered seems to be, and to imitate the seed’s total giving of self that becomes the harvest of Gospel justice and mercy.
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