15th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Matthew 13: 1-23

1 That same day Jesus left the house and sat by the lakeside,

2 but such crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat there. The people all stood on the beach,

3 and he told them many things in parables. He said, "Imagine a sower going out to sow.

4 As he sowed, some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate them up.

5 Others fell on patches of rock where they found little soil and sprang up straight away, because there was no depth of earth;

6 but as soon as the sun came up they were scorched and, not having any roots, they withered away.

7 Others fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

8 Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some a hundred fold, some sixty, some thirty.

9 Listen, anyone who has ears!"

10 Then the disciples went up to him and said "Why do you talk to them in parables?"

11 "Because," he replied, "the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven are revealed to you, but they are not revealed to them.

12 For anyone who has will be given more, and he will have more than enough; but from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

13 The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding.

14 So in their case this prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled: "You will listen and listen again, but not understand, see and see again, but not perceive.

15 For the heart of this nation has grown coarse, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have shut their eyes for fear they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and be converted and be healed by me."

16 But happy are your eyes because they see, your ears because they hear!

17 I tell you solemnly, many prophets and holy men longed to see what you see, and never saw it; to hear what you hear, and never heard it.

18 You, therefore, are to hear the parable of the sower.

19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom without understanding, the evil one comes and carries off what was sown in his heart: this is the man who received the seed on the edge of the path.

20 The one who received it on patches of rock is the man who hears the word and welcomes it at once with joy.

21 But he has no root in him, he does not last; let some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, and he falls at once.

22 The one who received the seed in thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches choke the word and so he produces nothing.

23 And the one who received the seed in rich soil is the man who hears the word and understands it; he is the one who yields a rich harvest and produces now a hundred fold, now sixty, now thirty."

Meditation

On this and the next two Sundays we have parables of Jesus for our meditation so it would be good to remember the special characteristics of parabolic teaching. Parables are wisdom teaching.

By reading them we get a new insight into life - e.g parenting, friendship, leadership, spiritual guidance, etc. They teach by way of paradox. Things that we thought to be opposed turn out to be both true, and taken together reveal the new insight mentioned above.

We must always be on the look out for a surprise in a parable therefore - an unexpected turn of events, something being praised that we would not normally consider praiseworthy. If we follow this up, the parable ends up challenging our values or the dominant values of our culture. Parables are stories and we are invited to enter into their movement.

At a certain point the story comes to a climax - the moment when we experience the surprise mentioned above. Note that the climactic moment will be different for different readers and for us at different times in our lives. The parable of the sower is one of Jesus' greatest, not merely for its content, but as a masterpiece of imaginative teaching.

The conclusion of the meditation is twofold - how deep! and, what a great teacher! The passage is in four sections: the parable in verses 4 to 9; a comment on teaching in parables in verses 10 to 15; a reflection on the grace of the present in verses 16 and 17; the parable interpreted in verses 18 to 23.

We are free to remain with one section only or to see a thread running through the entire passage. 1.In meditating onverses 4 to 9 we are free to take a different interpration to that proposed in verses 18 to 23.

Those verses focus on the different kinds of soil, and this is generally how the parable has been read in the Church. We can read the parable from the point of view of the sower however, getting a feel of how free and generous of spirit he is - the fact that he is not overly concerned that some of the seed will not produce crop but continues to sow, trusting that eventually his work will bear abundant fruit This was probably Jesus' original perspective.

We can imagine him telling the parable in response to the disciples' complaints, "we're wasting our time", "no one's listening". He then points to a sower sowing seed in a nearby field and answers them, "let's learn from him that we have to continue sowing".

We celebrate sowers, God himself first of all, generous both in nature and in the work of grace. We also celebrate people like Jesus who praise the approach of the sower and reject their critics who advocate being calculating in relationships .

We read the parable from hindsight in a spirit of thanksgiving, "thank God for sowers who continued working in hope"; or as a call to repentance for today, "forgive us Lord for being so caculating in our ministry".

2. In verses 10 to 15, we take "parables" in the wide sense of events (in human behaviour or nature) which become lessons about life. The passage reminds us that it is the way of teaching preferred by God and by all good teachers - parents, community leader, church ministers, spiritual guides. We ask ourselves, why?

3.Verses 16 and 17 celebrate the experience of parabolic teaching bearing fruit - the "aha moment" . We think of insights we take for granted today, whereas some years ago "sowers" were attacked for preaching them - equality of races and sexes, democracy, the Church's option for the poor.

Verses 18 to 23 belong to a different context from 4 to 9. The Church has grown and become more settled. The question now arises, how come some remained faithful and others didn't? The parable answers, "look at the sower, you will see that it is the soil which determines whether seed bears fruit or not".

We repent of times when we allowed obstacles to prevent seed from bearing fruit in our individual lives and our communities. We also celebrate experiences of rich soil bearing abundant fruit.

We are free to focus on the fact that even when the harvest is abundant there are still differences, "now a hudredfold, now thirty, now sixty". What is the wisdom in being conscious of this? The parable of the sower is perfectly fulfilled in the lectio divina method.

The biblical word is a seed sown in us; personal experience is the soil in which it takes root; we can identify various factors which prevent the word from "producing crop" ; once we "hear the word and understand it" (i.e. come to wisdom) it yields a rich harvest.

The parable is also a powerful teaching on development. If aid from rich to poor countries is to "yield a rich harvest" it must be given as a seed which will take root in the local culture. Truly a call to repentance for those involved in globalisation today - and we all are!

Prayer 

Lord, in the world today we have become very calculating: whatever effort we put out must bring maximum gain; what does not bring results we omit altogether; we even relate like that in our families, in our Church community, with our friends.

Teach us to look at the sower going out to sow, to see in him how generous you are: you don't mind that some seed falls on the edge of the path and birds come and eat them up or that some fall on patches of rock where they spring up right away but as soon as the sun comes up they are scorched and wither away; or that some fall on thorns and are choked by the thorns.

You let all this happen because you know that eventually seeds will fall on rich soil, and will produce their crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Lord, we thank you for our parents: they were generous with their love; they sowed the seeds of care, good advice and their own example.

Often they saw no results as these seeds fell on the edge of the path, on patches of rock, or among thorns. But they sowed all the same, and eventually the seeds fell on rich soil and produced their crop.

Lord, forgive us that we do not give Jesus' message a chance to go deep into society: we choke it with many compromises; we imply that it wasn't really meant to work, that it was only for children, youths or older people.

As a result, it never gets a chance to fall on rich soil, to touch the generosity and idealism of people, and so it does not produce the crop it was meant to produce in society.

We pray today for those who work the land, that they may sow like the sower in the parable, not mean or calculating or arrogant, but trusting the land and respecting its wildness so that it may produce abundant crops. Lord, we look back on our journey to maturity.

We remember with gratitude how at first we had only a glimmer of light; we knew very vaguely that we wanted to live a life of service; that we needed a deep relationship with you; that here was the kind of person we wanted to be with for the rest of our lives.

Then, as we needed more clarity, you gave us more, and now we experience abundant peace within ourselves. Help us to be content with the little faith you give us, knowing that as we need more you will give us more, and when it is time we will have more than enough.

Have mercy on those who cannot trust at all, lest the little chance they may have be taken away.

Lord, help us to feel compassion for those who cannot interpret your parables, to understand that their ears are dull of hearing and they have shut their eyes for fear that they should see with their eyes or hear with their ears, or understand with their hearts; for it they did, they would have to be converted before they could be healed by you.

Lord, we thank you for the many wonderful things that our eyes can see and our ears can hear: that you created men and women as equal partners; that the human family is called to live in harmony; that the Church of Jesus Christ is the Church of the poor; that all the baptized are fully members of the Church.

We thank you for all the prophets and the holy people who longed to see what we see, but never saw it, to hear what we hear, but never heard it.