The problem is, what others want to hear isn’t always true or what they need to hear. Jesus understood that well, and in his preaching, he walked a fine line between being able to capture people’s attention while also telling them what they actually needed to hear. His preaching challenged them, and sometimes even made them confused. This is especially true in his most famous method of preaching, his parables. Jesus was a keen observer of the world around him, and he used examples and experiences of the world around him in his parables. For that reason, Jesus’s parables are immediately accessible – i.e., we don’t have to stretch our minds to grasp the basic meaning – but also continually challenging, defying easy explanations.
We see a great example of this in today’s Gospel. Jesus gives a parable that seems straightforward: a farmer goes out to sow his fields. Simple enough. But the story is also a little strange, right? This farmer sows his seed not just on the rich soil but on other ground as well. I’m sure the farmers of our community could tell us that’s a strange way to behave, and no way to make a profit. Jesus’s parable is clearly aimed at a deeper truth than the obvious one, and he wants us to strive to understand it: “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
Vincent van Gogh, The Sower (Sower at Sunset) (1888)
We are fortunate that St. Matthew continues his account by telling us that he and the other disciples asked Jesus about this parable, indeed, about why he used parables at all. The Lord’s answer is strange – “Knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you but to them it has not been granted.” This may seem unfair to us; wouldn’t it be best for everyone to hear God’s word and understand it? We know from experience though that’s not the case. Sometimes people’s circumstances, their human failings, and yes, their sins can prevent them from becoming what God desires them to be. As Scripture shows us, even in Jesus’s own ministry, many heard his word but failed to understand and accept it. What we need to do is make sure we’re not a part of that group that is closed off to his word. God has given us ears – let’s use them to hear!
Jesus warns us of three situations, or attitudes, or states in life that can prevent us from hearing God’s word. The first is ignorance. The seed on the path is the one who is ignorant of God’s word; who can’t understand it, and doesn’t strive to do so. It’s important then that we try to educate ourselves. As Catholics, we have so many riches of our faith and tradition to help us understand the word. One of the very best is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. How many of us have a Catechism? Do we look at it regularly? Do consult it when we have a question about God or faith or morality, or do we try to decide on our own?
The second danger is tribulation. When we first receive God’s word, it can be a joy and a revelation. But inevitably, a test will come: some personal trial, like doubts in prayer or a questioning of faith; a family struggle, like divided relationships; or a moral crisis, that makes us have to really choose whether we are going to act in accord with what we say we believe. When a tribulation like that comes, we have to have deep roots – in believing in God’s goodness, in believing the truth of his word – or else our faith will wither, like seed in rocky ground.
The third hazard is anxiety – concerns over the world and daily life. This is the one that most of us probably should be most on the lookout for, because even people who seek to know God’s word, and seek to have deep roots in trying to accomplish it, can often fall victim to being overcome by worry. There’s no shortage of things to be anxious about, if we choose to: the pandemic, the state of our society, the coming elections, the personal or family crises that I described above, or maybe just the daily grind of work, family, marriage, relationship that can become a struggle. Jesus warns us that if we focus too much on those things, God’s word is going to be choked within us – it will fail to thrive and bear fruit. And notice, too, that Jesus also mentions explicitly “the lure of riches.” The pursuit of wealth, or even of material security, can also present a danger to hearing and acting upon God’s word.
Harvest in Provence (1888) by Vincent van Gogh
Jesus’s parable naturally leads us to consider whether any of these three problematic situations, attitudes, or states apply to us. And if they do then fortunately, unlike regular soil, we can with God’s grace change the state of our own hearts. We can repent, turn our hearts back to God, and start anew in opening ourselves to receive his word. Indeed, that is why he sows the seed of his word so liberally, in the way that no earthly farmer would – because he desires all persons to open their hearts to receive him. The most important thing to do is to what the disciples did – to stay close to Jesus, to keep striving to understand what he wants us to know, and to remain focused on him above all else.
Friends, like the people who heard it long ago, Jesus’s parable challenges us today – not only to interpret it, but to understand that it is precisely what we need to hear. It can be hard to accept the fact that we have become lax in different ways in listening for God’s word: in seeking to understand it, in giving it deep roots in our lives so that we persevere in times of trial, and especially in staying focused on it over and above the worries of the world. But only by realizing where we have gone astray, can we then grow: “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
May the Lord in this Eucharist help us, as he helped the disciples, to learn a deeper knowledge of the kingdom of heaven, so that our hearts may be cultivated into rich soil, that we may go and bear fruit in the world.
1 comment:
Amen
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