The parable of the sower
It’s the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time and today’s gospel reading is about the Parable of the Sower. Our Lord Jesus Christ often taught his disciples in parables for various reasons because oftentimes, his stories were not so easy to understand and using parables would make it easier for his disciples to understand what he is teaching. Also in ancient times, there wasn’t much to do…no radio, no TV, no other forms of entertainment, so teaching in parables made for an interesting or even a memorable talk.
Since our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew, the use of parables in teaching his disciples was quite common in those days… after all, there were no books yet in the old days, although they could use pieces of parchment, which is why most of our Lord’s parables were included in the New Testament. You can read the Parable of the Sower in Matt.13:1-9.
1 [One] day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. 3 And he spoke to them at length in parables. Saying;
“A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, 6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.
7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. 8 But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. 9 Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
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As Catholics, I’m sure that many of our faithful readers must have come across this parable…after all, year in and year out, our Gospel narratives or stories are recycled annually so certainly we have come across this particular parable. Anyway in case you’ve already forgotten, the seed that the sower in this parable is the Word of God and of course, God himself is the sower and the seed falls on four types of ground.
Many Christians get to hear the Word of God and the seed that falls on the path are eaten by the birds. The path here is solid ground and therefore the seed isn’t buried into the soil and so it merely becomes food for the birds. This represents the people who hear God’s word, yet they have no reaction to it and the devil, represented by the birds eat up the faith that was planted into their hearts but there’s just no connection with God for them.
The seed that fell on rocky ground had a little soil and the seed grew into a bud… but since the soil wasn’t deep, when the sun rose, it withered. Let me give a real example to this part of the parable to a person who joined a Charismatic Community, who after receiving the Word of God rejoiced in his hearing. But his faith is not on solid ground and doesn’t take root in his soul… and thus he withered away and leaves the community.
Then there’s the seed that fell on thorny ground, and it grew with the thorns and choked the seed. This story is like the story of our Lord Jesus Christ and the rich young man who did what was prescribed according to the Law of Moses…but he had so much riches and material goods, which blocked him from the faith God gave as a gift, so he withered away.
Finally, the seed fell on rich soil and produced much fruit. This story is about the person who joins a Charismatic Community and listens to God’s word and he experiences a true conversion of his soul and becomes transformed from his ugly sinful past to one who goes and preaches God’s word.
In my book, this man experienced what Saul of Tarsus (he led the persecution of the early Christians) experienced on the Road to Damascus… when our Lord Jesus Christ appeared on the road and he fell from his horse and was blinded. When he awoke, Jesus changed his name to Paul and he became one of the greatest Saints in Christianity and died for Christ.
All of us Catholics must experience what it means to have a conversion. Just because we were baptized into Catholicism, it doesn’t mean that we’re exempted from having a conversion. I must confess that way back in 1998, it was declared as The Year of the Holy Spirit and somehow by divine coincidence, it was the time that I took the Life of the Spirit Seminar (LSS) and somehow, I felt the Holy Spirit inside me and realized that he was not just a figure in the Holy Bible… but the Holy Spirit is for real. So in a way, the Parable of the Sower is also our own story that we can relate to our own spiritual journey. So at this point, let’s asked ourselves on which ground did the seed (the gift of faith) that God (the sower) gave us fell on our hearts?
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