That Seeing, They May Not See

  We believe that we are an intelligent people.  We certainly know that there are others who are smarter than we are, but for the most part we consider ourselves to be “above the norm.”

And so, when new thoughts, ideas, concepts are presented to us, we again think ourselves able to judge good from bad, right from wrong.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 8:5-15) our Lord presents “the Parable of the Sower.”  With our ‘experience’ in hearing this so many times before, we have the understanding that the Apostles didn’t have, a lack of understanding that forced them to ask the Lord, “What does this parable mean?”

Given their question, we should NOT jump to a conclusion that we are above the Apostles’ level of understanding!

But let’s break down the Lord’s answer to them about the parable’s meaning.

Jesus says, “The seed is the word of God.”  And so in our lack of humility we say to ourselves, “OK—got it!  You (Jesus) are the Sower, and You are spreading the word of God.  That’s really a pretty simple concept.”

And in so thinking, we place ourselves amongst the group that really doesn’t understand!  How so?

The seed is the word of God.  It’s presented with a lower case “w” - word.  But our Lord is the Word of God.  His personification is that which delivers the Word of God to His creation.  And so in a very special way, the ‘seed’ is the Word, the ‘seed’ is Jesus Himself being spread to the world.

But it goes deeper than even this.  For what IS ‘seed’?

In the parable, we come to understand that this seed is expected by the Sower to take root and to grow, to bear fruit.  What is this fruit?  From a simplistic perspective one might conclude that it is a source of multiplication, to produce more seed, more fruit.  And there’s nothing wrong with that perspective.

But IF the seed that is being planted is the Word, then what is being planted is Christ Himself.  It is He Who is placing Himself into the soil, that is our soul, and giving us what is required to allow Him to grow within us.

Which brings us to the root (no pun intended) of the parable.  Our hearts, our intellects, our spirits are the soil into which the Word, the Seed, is being sown.

The Parable’s ‘teaching moment’ is one that never ends.  It continuously asks each of us the question, “How’s YOUR dirt today?”  You see, the Word never stops coming upon us.  The Word is sewn as seed to us by our reading Scripture, by our studying the Holy Fathers, by our encountering beggars in the streets, by our favorably responding to pleas for financial support for worthy causes, by our being placed into situations where we feel the call to stand up and speak for the truth.

The extent to which “our dirt” is aligned with the Parable’s “good ground” can be measured by our responses to these (and many other) situations.

The Parable of the Sower presents four (4) places into which the Sower allowed seed to fall.  Only one of those four is favorable.  Three of the four are failures.  We will recall our Lord’s words from Mat 22:14—”For many are called, but few are chosen.”  Is MY dirt the one that bears fruit?

Do we REALLY see yet?  Time runs short!