Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The parable of the sower of seed comes to us as our Lord Himself, the Great Sower of the divine Word, “went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the Kingdom of God” (Lk. 8:1). We recall how the angel of God declared glad tidings to the shepherds “keeping watch over their flock by night.” “And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them,” St. Luke records,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be unto all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord’ (Lk. 2:8-11).
The good and glad tidings – the Gospel – is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the Word of God made flesh. He goes about planting the seed of Himself wherever He trods for He is the very Kingdom of God breaking into the benighted existence of this world. His very Presence commands our attention and requires from us a decision, even our repentance (Lk. 4:16-30). “’The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’” was His call as He went about broadcasting the seed of the Kingdom in the hearts of all who heard Him (Mk. 1:15).
This image of the sower going to and fro throughout the countryside strewing his seed wherever he went without discrimination is an image far more familiar to generations long before us. Today, our sowers of seed are far more sophisticated, using mechanized farm implements and computer-controlled planters. Today’s sower of seed checks the weather provided by satellites and plans accordingly. The seed is planted with far more precision and efficiency in nice, neat rows, in fields well prepared beforehand engineered to receive it. Today’s sower is a master strategist and tactician. And yet, they are still at the mercy of nature when everything is said and done. They can only do so much to improve the odds of a plentiful harvest. The rest, as they say, is in the hands of God’s Providence.
And yet, despite all the advances in horticultural and agricultural sciences, it still remains a mystery of God’s goodness and grace and Intelligent Design as to how seed planted in the earth “’should sprout and grow.’” “’For the earth yields crops by itself,’” says Jesus, the Word and Creator of all that is, “’first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head’” (Mk. 4:26-29). He emphatically reminds us, “’unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain’” (Jn. 12:24). There is this enduring mystery that the sciences can understand, in part, but never fully isolate and capture in toto for the mystery is nonetheless still a divine Mystery. It is never fully comprehensible but is instead intended by God to inspire awe and wonder in the human heart and soul, thus leading us more fully into the depths of divine revelation. All of creation glorifies God (Ps. 8:1-9; 18 [19]:1; 103 [104]:1-35; 148:1-14; Rm. 1:20)!
The parable of the sower is a parable chocked full of divine Mystery. There is the Mystery of God’s grace and mercy and Providence. There is the Mystery of faith and unbelief. There is the Mystery of the Kingdom of God itself. There is the Mystery of growth. There is the Mystery of the human heart’s capacity for the divine. There is the Mystery of God-given free will and how God honors our free will to either receive Him and believe Him or to reject Him. And, there is the divine Mystery of repentance and conversion, to cite but a few.
“A sower went out to sow his seed.” We know what happens. The good seed is scattered abroad upon four types of soil, each receptive to varying degrees, some slightly more successful or productive than the others. On the extremes of the continuum we have the wholly non-fruitful soil, hard and compacted, unyielding to the seed’s presence while on the other end we have soil that is 100% effective. In between these two extremes, we find middle ground, so to speak. The seed is received and begins to germinate to one extent or another, yet even these two middle kinds ultimately fail. The bottom line, however, is only one of four soils is any good.
Of course, we are well aware that these soils represent various hearts and souls into which the divine Seed of God’s Word is planted. Not all of us receive God and His Word alike, that is to say, the divine Seed is not equally effective in us despite the fact that it is God and His Word. Some of us will hear and believe while many of us – if we follow the outcomes of the parable – will not. Thus, underscoring what our Lord has said at other times and places: “’[M]any are called but few are chosen’” (Mt. 20:16; 22:14). And, again, “’[N]arrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to Life, and there are few who find it’” (Mt. 7:13-14).
This, beloved, is a great Mystery of salvation. God doesn’t force any of us; He doesn’t compel any of us; He doesn’t override our free will, but rather honors the image – His image – in which He has created us, which includes our willingness to hear His Word and to love Him freely, to obey Him willingly. In some ways, this defies our logic because it would seem to us that if He were interested in our salvation, He would just save us and be done with it, grabbing everyone He can before it is too late. But, He doesn’t because salvation is about our healing. And some of us – if not many of us – as sick as we are with sin and death, simply do not want to be saved, do not wish to be healed. How sad and tragic the words of the Gospel that in the face of God’s immeasurable and incomprehensible love as manifested in the Cross by the Self-offering of the very God of God in the flesh, Jesus Christ the Son of God and Saviour of the world, that “’men loved darkness rather than Light, . . . lest [their] [evil] deeds should be exposed,’” that men freely and willingly preferred death to the abundant Life of God (Jn. 3:16-21; 10:10).
At the end of this parable, our Lord cautions His Disciples – and us – “’Take heed therefore how ye hear’” and to some others He said, “’My Mother and My brethren are these who hear the Word of God, and do it’” (Lk. 8:18, 21). In fact, Jesus says, “’Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it!’” (Lk. 11:28). The beauty of the Gospel is that we can change and be transformed. In religious terms that means, “Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand. Believe the Gospel” (Mt. 4:17; Mk. 1:14). It is only in the Kingdom of God on this side of eternity, that we have the God-given gift to become good soil for our good God Who loves mankind does not desire the death of sinners, but rather that “all men [should] be saved and . . . come to the knowledge of the Truth” (Ek. 18:32; 33:11; 1 Tm. 2:4). Our God Who is, at once, the Friend of mankind is “longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pe. 3:9). Take heed, therefore, beloved, how you hear these words for what you think you may have, our Lord warns, will be taken from you and given to another. Become the good soil that God has always intended from creation. Make your heart supple again by repentance and break up its hardness by confessing your preference for the darkness of sin and death rather than for the Light and Life of God.
Beloved, there are no consolation prizes for having been a contestant. Despite the fact that two of the four soils showed signs of growth, be it ever so small, the fact is they ultimately were fruitless: they failed to produce the fruits of the Kingdom of God unto the end with patience. Herein, then, beloved, is the clear distinction of the good soil. It’s not that the soil was absolutely perfect, without defect or impediments. But, rather the “’honest and good heart, having heard the Word,’” Jesus says, “’keeps it and brings forth fruit with patience [endurance/perseverance].’” The noble and good heart pursues God and His righteousness at all costs, clearing the brambles and thorns out of the way, plowing up the clods of hardened earth, watering, cultivating, pruning, and fertilizing so that real spiritual growth can occur. “A broken and contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise” (Ps. 50 [51]:1-19). We do not sit passively by expecting God to do for us what He has placed within our ability to do, that is, to cooperate with the grace of His Holy Spirit poured into our hearts which produces the fervor of love and hope (Rm. 5:1-5). Do we expect God’s richness when we ignore the very services of the Church in whose womb we are being saved and sanctified, and acts of devotion He has given to us in order to receive His grace like prayer, fasting, and almsgiving? “’For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you,’” our Lord once said (Lk. 17:21), and those souls who wish to enter it must take it by force and press into it (Mt. 11:12; Lk. 16:16).
Has your heart become calloused and hardened? Repent! Have you lost the zeal for the Lord? Are you lukewarm? Repent! Have you fallen to temptations . . . . . . repeatedly? Repent! Have the enticements of the world and all its empty promises lured you away from God and made you indifferent to the glories of God in His Kingdom? Repent, and be converted while there remains time! Today, says Sacred Scripture, is the day of salvation (2 Cr. 6:2; Hb. 3:7-19). Beloved, there is nothing repentance and humility cannot change on this side of eternity. “’Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the Presence of the Lord, . . . .’” (2 Ch. 7:14; Ac. 3:19). Salvation and the Kingdom of God bears fruit to the glory of God in the hearts and souls of all those who hear the Word of God, and do it – persistently – in faith (Mt. 24:13). “’He that has ears to hear, let him hear!,’” says the Lord.
Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
PROPERS:
2 Cr. 6:1-10
Lk. 8:5-15