OT XV [A] Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt  13:1-23

Today, we are introduced to parables, and parables are really a form of writing and preaching that the ancient rabbis in Israel used in order to explain the closeness and the goodness and what God was like. And so it is that Jesus, being a rabbi and had come to preach that the Kingdom of God was here and now, he turned to teach them through parables.

One thing about parables is that you do not explain them. And that’s why we didn’t read the second part of today’s Gospel, because Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower. Some, though, feel that Jesus was not explaining the parable, but it was his disciples, later on, in order to help people unfamiliar with parables, to give them a start about how you might approach listening to a parable and allowing it to reach down deeply into your heart.

Today, we have the Sower. The sower sows the seed. He has this huge bag full of seeds and he’s flinging them all over the land, going up and down and flinging it, like showering the whole field full of seeds. And when he does this, he also includes the thorn bushes, and he also includes the places where the people walk, and he also includes the areas where the seed will find rocky soil and will grow just a little bit and then suddenly it will disappear because it has no roots. 

People who live day-to-day, who practice subsistence farming as a matter of survival, would have treated seed with great care and caution. Seed was precious, expensive, and not to be wasted. A good farmer does not throw seed recklessly on hard-packed trails and into beds of weeds with no apparent concern for where it lands. No sane farmer in Jesus’ day or our day would treat seed this way.
But this is not the picture we get when we watch the sower in this parable. He is not careful or cautious. He is not meticulous. He is radically and irresponsibly reckless. This guy just throws seed everywhere! To a regular farmer, this sower is absolutely incompetent and should never be allowed to come close to any farmland. But for Christians who see this as a parable of how the Word of God is shared, this sower is bold, fearless, and generous.

The parable shows us a God who showers His graces generously and indiscriminately. Indeed, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Mt 5:45). God is not to be faulted for favouring some over others. His seed falls on different soils as His Word is shared with different hearts.

Likewise, we, too, are called to imitate this seemingly reckless but truly generous sower, in how we share the gospel with others. The projected outcome, the likelihood of success, should not be the sole consideration that would limit our outreach and focus. Often, we are tempted to focus only on preaching to the choir, to the converted, knowing that our message would be well received. Common sense will tell us: don’t waste our time and effort with those who are obstinate and who refuse to listen. In fact, you may even come across as annoying and nagging. But we fail to recognise that it is those who are seemingly hardened of heart that need the liberating message of the gospel more than others because it is the sick who require a physician, not the healthy. The point of the parable is on the necessity of sowing.

We must not be stingy or overcautious with the sharing of the Word. Ultimately, we must learn to trust the efficacy of the Word and the Power of God to make His message take root in the heart soils of our audience and bear fruit. As St Paul reminds us, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Cor 3:6). So sow! Sow generously! Sow with abandonment and hold nothing back! You will never know that where you have sown, the Word will produce a rich harvest, “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears.”

The reception of the Word of God makes one fruitful. Reception does not depend upon God, the sower, not on the seed; it depends upon our decision. We are the kind of soil we choose to be.
When we hear the word of God read at Mass and or when we read it for ourselves, we need to ask God’s special grace to remove all types of blocks, like laziness, anxiety, worries, and the burden of unrepented sins, any of which can prevent the word of God from influencing and transforming our lives.

We need to keep our spiritual soil fertile and prepared for the word of God: We need to keep our hearts open to the word of God instead of closing it with pride, and prejudice, and, with God’s grace, to uproot the “weeds” of evil habits and addictions, evil tendencies, hatred, jealousy, fear, and greed. We should not allow the trials and tribulations of this world, the cares of this world, our ambitions, or our desires for worldly success and happiness to choke out the messages that God gives through His word. May the Holy Spirit help us to keep our hearts free of all the blocks that prevent the word of God from entering our hearts and minds and bearing fruit and also to have the willingness to share it with the hungry hearts.