The disciples came and asked Jesus: “Why do you talk to them (the crowd) in parables?” He replied: “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever a person has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. The reason I talk to them in parables is that they look without seeing and listen without hearing and understanding. 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” Matthew 13: 1-23
Today’s gospel-reading is taken from chapter 13 of Matthew‘s Gospel. That chapter is often referred to as “The Parable Chapter” because it has seven successive parables. While Matthew calls Jesus’ story of the sower, the seed and the soil a parable, it is technically an allegory. Our dictionaries will tell us that an allegory uses material things to explain concepts or spiritual realities, while a parable is generally a short allegory whose purpose is to teach moral lessons. Jesus used this story to explain how and why his teaching about the kingdom of God more often than not fell on deaf ears. The example he used would have been well-understood by the farmers in his audience. The practice followed by farmers in the time of Jesus was to sow their crops by scattering the seed before they ploughed the ground on which the seed had been scattered. Hence some seed landed where it could not possibly germinate and grow to maturity. While Jesus’ disciples understood next to nothing of his parables, they were astute enough to attribute ignorance to members of the crowd rather than admit to it themselves: “Why do you talk to them in parables?” In response, Jesus explained in detail how his teaching about God’s word received a varied reception from those to whom it was directed. But he did not proceed to explain the response expected of those who heeded his message (the good soil). They were meant to share the seed that flourished in them in order to nourish the people they encountered as they pursued their ministry of discipleship. In this story of the farmer sowing the seed, those who receive the seed, who hear Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, take on three identities in turn – the identities of good soil, sowers and seed.
This gospel-reading is complemented and reinforced by today’s first reading from Isaiah and second reading from Paul to the Romans. Isaiah invites us into a reflection on the word of God offered freely to God’s People and transmitted to them by people like Moses, their Prophets and Judges and other inspired writers. Yet, again and again they failed to hear and abide by what had been offered to them. Created in the image of God, humanity is free to accept or turn a deaf ear to God’s invitation to be in communication. Likening the offer of God’s word to the falling of snow and rain, Isaiah made the point that humanity has no more control over the generation of God’s word than it has over the rain and snow that fall down from the heavens. Moreover, just as rain and snow nourish creation, God’s word is a source of nourishment and life to all who open their ears to hear it. By heeding and embracing God’s word, we human beings commit ourselves to be in relation with the God who loved us into life.
A connection between today’s gospel-reading and our first reading from Isaiah is evident in the words Isaiah attributes to God in his opening verses: “Yes, as the rain and the snow come down from the heavens and do not return without watering the earth, making it yield and giving growth to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eating, so the word that goes from my mouth does not return to me empty, without carrying out my will and succeeding in what it was sent to do.” (Isaiah 55: 10-11) The theme of these verses is the very theme of today’s gospel-reading, namely that the lives of all who open their ears to God’s word will be nourished.
The second reading from Paul to the Romans adds another layer for our reflection on God’s creative and nourishing word. The very first book of the Bible taught us that God’s creative word brought the world into existence. Paul notes that the whole of creation, including all of humanity, is groaning under the grip of decadence and, consequently, longing for freedom. In very recent times Pope Francis reminded us, in his voluminous encyclical Laudato si, that we humans have contributed to the groaning of creation by destroying and polluting our common home and many of the birds, animals and insects that share that home with us. We are all longing, hoping praying and actively cooperating for God’s re-creating word to free the whole of creation from decadence and destruction. Paul gives us a ray of hope in stating that our current sufferings and struggles pale into insignificance compared to the glorious future God has in store for us. (cf Romans 8: 18)
Taken together, today’s readings urge us to open our hearts, minds and ears to God’s word inviting us to be in relationship with the One who loved us into life. The readings remind us that God’s word comes to us in a multiplicity of ways: from Moses, the Prophets and the other wisdom figures of the First Testament, through Jesus, the Christ and his teachings, actions, compassion, mercy and love, through the Holy Spirit who abides deep within each of us, through the wonders of the created world which reflect God’s creative word, through the writings of theologians and scripture scholars and the encyclicals of our recent Popes and through our fellow human beings whom we encounter every day.
Our responsibility as modern-day disciples of Jesus, is to open ourselves to heed and be nourished by God’s word and, in turn, to transmit it to everyone we encounter. We have a responsibility to be nourishing soil, seed and sower.