July 10, 2011 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Reading 1 - Is 55:10-11
Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.
Responsorial Psalm - 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
R. (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have visited the land and watered it; greatly have you enriched it.
God’s watercourses are filled; you have prepared the grain.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers, blessing its yield.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have crowned the year with your bounty, and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it, and rejoicing clothes the hills.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
The fields are garmented with flocks and the valleys blanketed with grain.
They shout and sing for joy.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Reading II - Rom 8:18-23
Brothers and sisters: I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Gospel - Mt 13:1-23
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.”
The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” He said to them in reply, “Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted, and I heal them.
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
Reflection
The Parable of the Sower is a story so densely packed with theological truth that an entire volume of scholarship could easily be devoted to its exegesis. And yet, before we explore the imagery of the parable, it’s worth pausing to comment on the genre of the story itself. Even the disciples, upon hearing Jesus words, do not delve immediately into the content, but first ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Well… why does he?
Jesus was unquestionably esteemed among the greatest minds of his day. The huge crowds who came to listen to him preach attested to the fact that his words resonated with people, so much so that they were willing to put aside their daily work in order to hear his sermons. And yet, he did not speak to them in complicated terms, neither employing the sort of highfalutin philosophical language characteristic of modern academia nor relying on the type of classical logical formula that defined the Greek philosophers.
Rather, Jesus told stories; incredibly simple ones at that. Ones rife with imagery from the culture of which he was a part. We see Jesus at an early age in the synagogues of Jerusalem, explaining the Scriptures to learned scholars, which is to put him in the graduate seminars of his day, as if a 12 year old were to walk into a conference room in the Physics Department and begin sketching out a solution to unresolved questions of string theory. Incontestably, Jesus could converse with the most intelligent minds in society. And yet, when he began his public ministry, he traveled to farming towns and fishing villages along the Sea of Galilee, the “working class” corridor of ancient Palestine.
These women and men were not formally educated; most probably could not read. They would not have been able to quote Leviticus to Jesus, much less correlate a passage from Torah with a concept from Hellenistic thought. So in order to take these immensely complex and impossibly abstract ideas from Scripture and make them palpable to farmers and shepherds, Jesus constructed metaphors using items that were familiar to them from their everday lives—bushel baskets, vineyards, mustard seeds. The parable of the sower is among the most trenchant.
The parable can be read in several ways, but the first and most obvious is the one Jesus himself presents: God is the sower, we are the soil, and God’s word is the seed. We are invited to consider how, at different points in our lives, we might aptly be characterized as rocky soil—hardened on the outside and resistant to God’s word taking root. At other moments, we seem eager to receive God’s word, but then other things in our life (“weeds”) get in the way and prevent that word from continuing to grow. Too, we may well recognize instances when we truly are fertile—properly tilled and full of nutrients, prepared to integrate the energy of the sun and moisture of the rain—and because of this, we find that great fruit has grown as a result.
It is worth spending some time to consider—what sorts of atmospheric conditions, i.e. what in our lives, causes us to become rocky and hard, unyielding to the efforts of the sower? How do we become “rocky?” Too, what sorts of “weeds” do we allow to get in the way? What sorts of other priorities do we permit to take up all of our time, preventing us from absorbing the growth-inducing energy of the sun and choking away all the nutrients of the water?
But beyond the initial reading of the parable, there are multiple other ways in which to interpret these images, and innumerable insights to be gained from such an exploration. In addition to being the soil upon which the seed falls, it is possible that we are, at other times, a tool in the hands of the sower. That is, in much the same manner that St. Francis of Assisi exhorted God, “Lord make me an instrument,” we might find ourselves being put to use as an instrument of the farmer, part of the process of bringing forth fruit from the soil. The only way to break up rocky soil or eliminate weeds is to employ a hoe or rake to break up the stones and remove the unwanted roots. It is entirely possible that we find ourselves being put to use as a tool to help prepare our “fellow soil” for the seed God wishes to sow, and so in that sense, it may yield fruit to ask, “In what sense am I a tool? And what does that require of me?”
Among other things, it entails that we be used according to the wishes of the sower. A tool does not determine its own use; rather it moves in synchronicity with the motion of the sower. Too, no one single tool is effective at performing all of the tasks necessary to bring forth the harvest—many different tools go into such an undertaking. It is important to remember that no one of us can do it all—the sower has a whole shed full of tools with complementing roles, and no one is “more important” than any other. Moreover, a tool must be taken care of—must be brought in for sharpening and re-shaping when it has undergone much use. We should be able to recognize when we, from extensive use, require a break from the work and a bit of attention in the shed.
But perhaps most importantly, it is essential to point out that the tool is not the point. No one who goes to a farmer’s market and picks up fresh, ripe tomatoes and lifts them to the nostrils, drinking in the sweet aroma of the fruit thinks to herself, “I wonder whether the tool used to harvest these tomatoes had a metal handle or wood one.” Rather, the person delights in the fruit itself and thinks of all the wonderful sauces and salads she will be able to make with it. Put simply: the tool is not the point… the fruit is. The same is true of our own role. Insofar as we are used by God to bring forth fruit from the world around us, it is a testament to the skill of the sower in whose hand we are held, and to the beauty of the fruit itself.
Questions for Reflection
1) As of this very moment, what type of soil would you say you are? Have you ever felt like you were another type? If you were rocky, how did you get that way? And if you no longer feel rocky, what changed? If you have felt fertile and receptive to the seed, what did that feel like? How did you get that way? And what was the result when you were open to the actions of the sower?
2) Do you ever feel like you are being asked to be “a tool” in the hand of God so that God can bring about some effect on the soil around you? What has it felt like?
3) In your own experience, what specifically does it look like when you (or those around you) bring forth “fruit?” How is your life different? If you do not feel fertile now, how might you get there?
