XV- O.T : Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt  13:1-23

You remember, last week I expressed my desire to cultivate a kitchen garden and asked for some help in tilling the ground. One good young man came forward and tilled the ground for me. Then I got some plants and started to dig holes to plant them. Wherever I dug, only rocks appeared and even the soil underneath seemed very hardened. I realized that it is not the most suitable place to plant, but I have no option at this late time of the season for planting. So, I planted them, knowing fully well that I may not get a hundredfold harvest, unless I really work hard on the soil loosening it up by mixing some better soil and manure.

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 Jesus assured his confused disciples that the “Good News” he preached would produce the intended effect in spite of opposition and controversy.

This parable is a story of God's prodigality, sowing seeds right and left, in abundant measure so that we 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. God’s Word is powerful – and, as we know, no power exists that can frustrate it.  God is in charge, He will bring the harvest, and it will be abundant. We need not despair if that harvest is not immediately visible. The parable tells us to do our part by preparing fertile soil in our hearts for the word of God to yield 60- and 100-fold.

The seed is the same, but the soils different. Rich soil doesn’t just happen. It needs effort, to loosen it up, remove stones, and weeds, to make it rich soil, ready and good for the seed. But then again do not miss the point. It isn’t all about our decision. But what has been revealed to us. We have been chosen. It is the seed that germinate and bring fruit.  It’s all God’s work. It’s not ours. But - we have to ‘come’ to it. We have to accept it in good soil disposition.

What kind of soil are we? This is something we need to be asking often ourselves. 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 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? 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. We should pick up the seeds that landed on not so good soil and try to nurture and water them so that they will bear grains.

Meister Eckhart wrote:  A disciple of Jesus is one who receives the seed of God's word into good soil.  Soil is ‘humus’, which gives us the word ‘humility’. “God cannot work except in the ground of humility, for the deeper we are in humility, the more re­ceptive we are to God….The more a person is sunk in the ground of true humility, the more he or she is sunk in the ground of divine being.”

Let us ask the Holy Spirit to always open our ears and hearts in humility so that the Word of God will bear fruit a thousand fold.