Word to the Wise
Friday, July 27, 2012 - Friday in the 16th Week in Ordinary Time
[Jer 3:14-17 and Matt 13:18-23]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.
It's a risky business to be a farmer! I come from an area of Louisiana that is primarily agricultural. Weather, pests and weeds are constant concerns. The bottom line is the "yield." In Jesus' parable of the sower and the seed, which my readers should go back and read at the beginning of Chapter 13, Jesus seems to be emphasizing the sowing and its challenges. But when the disciples question him about the parable in today's gospel scripture, the emphasis is clearly on the response. What is the "yield" and why is it great in some places and poor in others?
I have highlighted one particular example from Jesus' interpretation which I have experienced time and again in my ministry, especially in campus ministry. Students with great faith would come to the university campus and experience a kind of freedom they have never had before. I would see them for a time early in the undergrad years and then they "disappear" or show up only occasionally. Academic problems are rarely the cause. It is usually life-style that is the challenge. A Christian commitment can be seen as a "drag" on some very apparently exciting "options." One might be tempted to say, "Well, that's just part of student life and they will 'get over it' when they graduate and enter the 'real world.'" My work with marriage annulments tells me that life-style decisions made in college or in the young adult years 18-30 have a lasting impact on subsequent decisions and relationships. Habits formed in this period that undermine faith and integrity are hard to break later on. Religion becomes just another "lifestyle option" that one "exposes" one's children to but it shouldn't get in the way of the All-Star game or other social/athletic or economic activity! These are the "chokers of the crop."
Discipline and vigilance, along with effort, are required to assure a good "yield" by keeping the "weeds" out of one's life. Reading this parable and Jesus' interpretation can be an opportunity to do some crop inspection and actions to assure that "good yield." AMEN