“Sow with Faith and Hope”
by Colleen O’Sullivan
On that
day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he
got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables,
saying: "A sower went out to sow. And
as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had
little soil. It sprang up at once
because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it
withered for lack of roots. Some seed
fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil and produced
fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.
Whoever has ears ought to hear." (Matthew 13:1-9)
Piety
The seed is the word of God, Christ is
the sower;
all who come to him will live forever. (Gospel
Acclamation for today’s Mass)
Study
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| Heinrich Hofmann Georg Hahn, Behold, A Sower Went Forth to Sow, 1893, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons |
I love a good story. My
grandmother had a seemingly endless supply of tales to tell, and my brother,
sister and I can still remember many of them today. Stories help us to remember the truth being illustrated,
whereas a straightforward statement of that same truth might soon disappear from
our memories.
In our Gospel reading today, we hear Jesus telling a story, one of five about
the Kingdom of Heaven and what it’s like in this section of Matthew’s Gospel. By the Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew doesn’t
mean a place, either here and now or in the future, but rather the network of communities
of believers who are committed to following the life and teachings of Jesus.
Jesus goes down to the edge of the sea and sits down. He’s ready to share a story with the people
gathered, but there are so many, he has to get into a boat so everyone can hear
him. Jesus himself isn’t a farmer, but
he lives in an agrarian society, so he weaves his tale around a scenario
familiar to any first-century farmer.
He talks about a farmer going out to plant his fields and the difficulties
this farmer encounters – hungry birds, rocky soil, thorns, shallow places where
roots can’t take hold, days of hot, burning sun drying up what little moisture
there is in the soil. Every farmer in
the crowd knows exactly what the Lord is describing. They’ve all been up against it.
But maybe Jesus is talking about more than that. Perhaps he’s thinking of his own life as
well. He came into the world intent on bringing
people the love of God. He prays
regularly, checking with his Father, making sure they are in sync and that
Jesus is preaching and teaching what he hears from God. Yet everywhere he goes, he meets with
resistance and obstacles. Jesus has to
be discouraged at times. He isn’t the
sort of Messiah the people are looking for.
They are searching for one who will militarily defeat the Romans and set
up a triumphant earthly rule. A carpenter’s
son from Nazareth doesn’t fit that bill.
The people, particularly the Jewish leaders, are reluctant to try anything
new. It’s easier to stick to the old
ways, where life is governed by hundreds of detailed rules, than to cede any
authority to Jesus. He’s a real threat
to the status quo, so much so that the Pharisees are looking for a way to kill him. About
the only people who see something special and wonderful in Jesus are the poor
and downtrodden of society, who know they are in need of the love, forgiveness
and healing Jesus brings.
The work of the Kingdom is God’s work.
All any of us can do, including Jesus, is sow the seeds. Some of what we sow often does amount to nothing. But in the end, God promises, some of the seeds
will hit fertile ground and produce a huge harvest. It may happen slowly, and we have to keep in
mind that God’s time isn’t necessarily our time.
Action
Things may seem fairly bleak for the Kingdom as we look around. We see emptier pews in many of our churches
and closed parishes in many dioceses. Disillusionment with the Church’s response to clerical
sexual abuse abounds. Expressions of
racism and hatred, as well as scenes of violence and despair, are reported daily
on our television news shows. You fill
in the blank with whatever is discouraging to you. Nevertheless, as Christians we seek to have
the heart and mind of Jesus. Given that,
we have to keep on sowing. Jesus didn’t
let even the specter of death stop him.
He went on healing the sick, forgiving sinners, and casting out the
demons that lay hold of us right up to the very last. And, as it turned out, even death didn’t
have the last word. God resurrected
Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday.
Share whatever is weighing on your heart with Jesus in prayer. Don’t let it stop you from continuing to sow
the Word. We are merely asked to do our
part. In faith and hope, we can leave
the final harvest to God.
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