God gives life to all things

By Tim Trainor

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/091821.cfm
I Timothy 6:13-16
Luke 8:4-15

An overview of How All 3 of Today's Readings Can be Tied Together:

The seed that is the Word falls on all of us as: “God gives life to all things”(see 1st reading). The produce of the seed depends upon whether the soil embraces it, thus allowing it to spread its roots and grow, unrestrained by harmful forces. “A generous and good heart”(see Gospel) that will embrace the Word of God is itself a gift we can ask for from the King of kings and Lord of lords. Even though He “dwells in unapproachable light,”(1st reading) astonishingly, we are invited to “Come with JOY into the presence of the Lord” (from our Psalm).

The Parable of the Sower (or of the four types of Soils) is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke.

Jesus tells of a farmer who sows seed indiscriminately. Some seed falls on the path (wayside) with no soil, some on rocky ground with little soil, some on soil which contains thorns, and some on good soil. In the first case, the seed is taken away; in the second and third soils, the seed fails to produce a crop; but when it falls on good soil, it grows and yields thirty, sixty, or a hundred-fold.

A Parable, as Steve Leininger pointed out to us some weeks ago, “is a succinct story, in prose or verse, that illustrates 1 or more instructive lessons or principles.  His ultimate definition was: “the word parable signifies in general a comparison, or a parallel, by which one thing is used to illustrate another. It is a likeness taken from the sphere of real, or sensible, or earthly incidents, (farming for example) in order to convey an ideal, or spiritual, or heavenly meaning.”

Common features of parables include repetition, contrast, reversal of expectations, the frequent use of three characters or incidents, and a climax built around the last character in the series. They invite their audience to reflect on their own behavior by illustrating a moral or  spiritual lesson.

To me, parables build 'word pictures' in our mind that have something enjoyably mysterious about them when they are used as a teaching vehicle. They help me remember application details longer.

It has been said: “Each reader should and will hear a distinct message. Plus, we may find the same parable leaves multiple impressions to each reader over time. So, reducing a parable to a single meaning distorts its message as well as ethical potential”.

We will return to this idea later – so remember: “the same parable may generate multiple impressions within each reader's mind over time.”

While Jesus is widely recognized as a user of the parable, they were not uncommon in Judaism. Luke’s audience, seeking confirmation of Jesus as the fulfillment of the promises made to Israel, would have recognized this form and it’s use to prompt thinking and thus to teach that The Kingdom of God is at hand by His echoing of text from the book of Isaiah 5 when God compares the people of Israel to a vineyard.

So Jesus tells many stories in the form of a parable, including this one. Again, as Steve told us, parables are simple stories used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Our job today as Miners is to dig into this story and retrieve our valuable Spiritual Lesson for this week. (Did he just kinda tell us a parable?)

Reviewing our 2nd reading, we hear Jesus explaining to his disciples that this Parable's meaning is: the seed represents the Gospel, the sower represents anyone who proclaims it and lastly the various soils explain why people have different responses to it.

This is the overall picture He wants them, right now, to understand. As they try to puzzle thru why there is such a mixed response and so many seem not to “get the message”.

Moving along in our look at this Parable, we next see what we can learn via some Commentary from the Church Fathers as they came to understand and use it in their times.

Jerome: "By this sower is typified the Son of God, who sows among the people the word of the Father." Note the injection of typology and suggested application to all people who preach God's word (that would include, I believe, you and I but we now call it “evangelizing”).

Chrysostom: "When you hear the words, the sower went out to sow, do not suppose that is a just for one thing. For the sower goes out often for other ends; as, to break up the ground, to pluck up noxious weeds, to root up thorns, or perform any other species of industry, but this man went forth to sow. What then becomes of that seed? three parts of it perish, and one is preserved; but not all in the same manner ..." Note the added context that was developed later on in the teaching.

Jerome: "This parable Valentinus lays hold of to establish his heresy, bringing in three different natures; the spiritual, the natural/animal, and the earthly. But there are here four named, one by the wayside, one stony, one thorny, and a fourth the good ground." Here we see it used for refuting bad theology.

Rabanus Maurus: "But those things which He silently left to our understanding, should be shortly noticed. The wayside is the mind trodden and hardened by the continual passage of evil thoughts; the rock, the hardness of the self-willed mind; the good soil, the gentleness of the obedient mind, the sun, the heat of a raging persecution. The depth of soil, is the honesty of a mind trained by heavenly discipline. But in thus expounding them we should add, that the same things are not always put in one and the same allegorical signification." More interpretation added here to aid in pastoral direction I suspect.

Chrysostom: "Next, how is it according to reason to sow seed among thorns, or on stony ground, or by the wayside? Indeed in the material seed and soil of this world it would not be reasonable; for it is impossible that rock should become soil, or that the way should not be the way, or that thorns should not be thorns. But with minds and doctrines it is otherwise; there it is possible that the rock be made rich soil, that the way should be no more trodden upon, and that the thorns should be rooted out. That the most part of the seed then perished, came not of him that sowed, but of the soil that received it, that is the mind. For He that sowed put no difference between rich and poor, wise or foolish, but spoke to all alike." Wow! Did you catch ALL that switching around? Has time changed the Parables message? Did Chrysostom just give us license to various other interpretations of the objects in this parable?

Jerome ends his discussion on the importance of this parable with, "We are excited to the understanding of His words, by the advice which follows, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."

Saint Remigius then adds greatly to our understanding of Jerome's meaning with this interpretive quote of his own: "These ears to hear, are ears of the mind, to understand namely and do those things which are commanded." So, Church Fathers made it a practice to built upon other good teaching that they encountered to further develop or explain it and maybe we should do likewise too.  

If the sower is Jesus (God) and the seeds God’s words (vision and action), then the parable speaks of spreading of the word of God. Certainly we, you and I , are the soil; at times not very receptive or momentarily receptive: hearing God’s word but then letting it die off or be choked out by competing interests.

At another level though, we could be the sower. Is Jesus telling his disciples that in God’s kingdom they must be him? From this perspective (as Jerome does) we are invited to think about what we say and do – what we sow.

Couldn't we also be the seed?

I want to pause now to get your reaction as to how I am interpreting this parable.

So, we could be the seed, thrown by God into circumstances of varying possibility. Facing defeat at times, finding fertile ground at other times. However you may interpret it, the parable contains lessons to be learned: do not be deterred; expect challenge; choose what to sow carefully; don’t stop planting! The parable of the sower is an invitation to a great hope, as your return on investment (ROI) could be 100%!

On the other hand, we can look at the parable as if we were the farmer. Vatican II and all the Popes since have stated repeatedly and unequivocally that each of us is called to be an evangelizer, to tell others that Jesus Christ changes lives eternally and that the place to encounter him most fully is within the Catholic Church. “But,” you may protest, “I tried it a few times and got nowhere. I just don’t have the personality, don’t have the gift”

Jesus, the Son of God, indisputably had both the personality and the gift. Yet when he sowed seed, much of it still ended up as bird food. Consider the thousands he fed with loaves and fishes, the multitude that heard his sermon on the mount, the throngs that welcomed him on Palm Sunday. Yet on the day of Pentecost, in the Book of Acts we are told, there were only 120 or so left in the Upper Room with Mary, awaiting the Holy Spirit. Notice, though, that the fruit borne by these 120 plants, or planters, however you now wish to view them, eventually filled the whole world!

To get the few that bear fruit, lots of seed must be sown by lots of people. So regardless of whether or not we think we have green thumbs, we farmers are being commanded through this parable to get the seed out there, sowing it everywhere we go, undeterred by the birds, the weeds, and the scorching sun.

Pope Francis, in preaching on this parable in 2017 said, “Jesus invites us today to look inward: to give thanks for our good ground and to work on the ground not yet good”.

So to me, in Summary - the parable of the sower has a twofold message for each of us:

1. As seed, our job is to joyfully get busy growing.

2. As farmers, our job is to get joyfully busy sowing and working on improving the ground (soil) within each of us that is not yet good!