Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 18, 2021 - Saturday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Tim 6:13-16 and Luke 8:4-15]"This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance." [Luke]
SEPTEMBER 18 ST; JUAN MACIAS, OP
The parable of the sower and the seed is one of those "living parables" that can yield different meanings depending on the one who hears or reads it! Luke composed this gospel some fifty years after Jesus' life, so the parable may reflect the missionary experience of preaching the word. Not every seed is going to yield good results. The important thing is to persevere with the planting. (I can see every farmer in this agricultural area of West Texas nodding, and my own amateur gardening experience joins them.)
Another approach would focus on challenging the hearer to examine their own experience in receiving the seed of God's word. What kind of soil are we? Our response might be that there's some of each kind in each of us, so the success of the crop may depend on when the seed was sown - youth, young adult, middle age, elderhood.... Indeed, does the soil change each day?
No matter which approach to the parable we take, it seems to me that perseverance is key. We have to keep planting, and we have to keep improving our own soil for the word of God to take root. Luke wrote to a missionary audience, and Pope Francis has urged us all to be "missionary disciples." Crops from time to time may be disappointing, but discouragement may keep us from planting at all or trying to improve. The challenge to understand the parable in different ways is proof of its "living and effective" power. {cf. Hebrews 4:12] AMEN