15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
This Sunday we hear the Gospel story of the sower who went out to sow the seed. This parable really is about the seed of faith with Jesus the sower and you and me as the soil on which the seed that is the word of God lands. In the First Reading from the prophet Isaiah, the Lord’s word is likened to rain that nourishes the earth, promising that it will accomplish its intended purpose without returning empty. in the Second Reading saint Paul tells us that Current sufferings are minimal compared to the future glory awaiting God’s children. All creation yearns for this liberation and shares in the anticipation of redemption.
In the Gospel Jesus shares a parable about a sower who scattered seeds, symbolizing the spreading of God’s word. The seeds fell on different types of soil, representing various responses to the message. As the early church faced opposition and a seeming lack of success, the parable must have given encouragement to the church at its beginning as a promise of fruit not yet visible to them. Jesus is speaking to a large crowd. They may be listening to what he says, but as it is today some will listen and others will leave what he is saying behind and go their own way. He is realistic as he seems to randomly cast his words out upon the crowd. Often that wee seed of faith may take root many years after it has been planted and today, we see many people returning to the faith or coming to the faith for the first time after someone or some event in their lives planted that first seed with others helping to nourish the seed helping it to grow. Many of the details in the parable are about wasted effort and lost seed. Sometimes, we wonder if all our efforts are worth it when things are falling around us. Very often things that happen in our lives don’t seem to be the way we might want them to be, but when we look at the problems with eyes of faith, we see that things around us are the way they are meant to be for the good of everyone.
Nobody really knows what’s beneath the surface of the soil we cast the seed of the word of God upon. Who knows the potential of good soil? Do good and poor soil both exist in the same person I think that it probably does much in the same way that a person can do good or be bad. Is there something we might say that will land on the interior good soil in a person and bear the “hundredfold, or sixty or thirtyfold” Jesus promises? who knows only God knows. While the gospel parable begins with and spends time on hardships and failure it ends in surprise and abundance. What was the source of this abundance? We look to what Isaiah told us today in the reading about the fertile, life-giving nature of God’s Word. Our God is a God of surprises, and our faith is also filled with so many surprises as well. Despite any discouragement we might feel because our efforts in many things seem futile and draining, we put our trust in the one who speaks to us a living word who sows the seed. The seed represents the Good News of the Kingdom, so by inference, the sower is Jesus himself. The message of Jesus may not always be welcome especially in our modern world were faith and religion are constantly under assault by those who oppose the faith-based outlook on life. That said we still have to sow the seed of faith by what we do and say and then we leave the rest up to God.
The efforts we make are never wasted and we don’t always see the fruit of the seed that is sown or the work we do. We are reminded that God’s plan is certain. His words nourish us, even when even when there is hardness of heart in life. Through the parables we know that we are being offered something good we could never get on our own, the love of a gracious and lavish God who is not stingy in showing us the signs of that love to his people.
Fullerton T 