Third Wednesday in Ordinary Time
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“I will give you rest from all your enemies.” (2 Samuel 7:11)
When the Twelve questioned Jesus, he said to them: “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? The sower sows the word.” (Mark 4:13-14)
Piety
Lord, let me be as free with your Word as you are with your love. Let me share your good news in all that I say and do.
Study
The real high-roller gambling businesspeople in our country aren’t on Wall Street or the Strip in
These folks bet hundreds of thousands of dollars on seed and hired help and machinery and fertilizer and storage and transportation. If they produce a bumper crop, their neighbors do as well... and the price they receive at market goes down. If prices go up, it usually means there’s been a natural disaster of some sort... and the size of the crop has been reduced. No wonder the number of family farms in the
Even knowing the odds, family farmers gamble on, because they can’t imagine not farming, not working their own land. They even joke about the inefficiency of what they do, knowing that most of the seed they plant will never produce wheat, rye, barley, soybeans, sorghum, corn, or other crops. The old saying: “One for the cutworm, one for the crow, one for the soil, and one to grow” isn’t far off, even today with advanced farming techniques.
Still, the grain farmer has an advantage over the evangelist. He or she knows the yield at the end of the growing season, usually a matter of months. You might say these makes followers of Christ the biggest gamblers of all. As we spread the Word, we can’t look into the hearts of those to whom we are ministering. It may be minutes, months, years, or a lifetime before we learn whether the seed we spread took root or withered. We may never know.
That not knowing can make us desire to conserve our “seed” and share it only with those we believe will appreciate it. Yet a Word Among Us meditation advises just the opposite:
If there is one word that characterizes the sower in this parable, it is generous. This fellow spreads his seeds everywhere. He doesn’t seem all that concerned about where the seed will fall. He simply casts it to and fro.
Isn’t this a great image for how we should view evangelization? Shouldn’t we be generous, almost indiscriminate, in the way we share God’s word and his promises? We really shouldn’t worry about where the seeds may fall or the soil quality of those with whom we share the word. Whether, in our judgment, the ground is hard, weedy, thorny, or fertile shouldn’t matter. After all, it is the Lord who gives the growth, not us (1 Corinthians 3:6-7). All we have to worry about is imitating the generosity of the sower.
Gamble like a grain farmer. Don’t consider the odds. Spread the word constantly. You never know what the harvest will bring.
Action
Sow your seed. Talk about the upcoming Women’s and Men’s Weekends at Mass this weekend and as you prepare for Lenten activities at your parish. Check in with Cursillistas you sponsored in the past to see if they need help in finding a group reunion, or if they’d like a ride to the diocesan Ultreya Friday night at Good Shepherd.
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