No One Left Out!
Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23
When we read the translation of today’s gospel, that the Sower is God, the soil is the human heart and the seed is the Word of God, the temptation that comes with a human reading of today’s gospel is to imagine that God leaves out or behind those of us with rocky and thorny hearts from the fruitfulness of his Word. Nothing can be further from the truth!
If the idea that the seeds that fell on the path, rocks, and thorns were scorched to death and failed to produce fruits comparable to those on good soil gives the impression of failure and abandonment, a closer look at the parable gives the hope that rocky and thorny soils can maximize their yields when rocks are fracked and thorns are either gathered up and burnt or cleared away from arable lands to reveal good soils.
The only way to imagine that God does not care for thorny and rocky soil is when he fails to allow his seeds to be sown in them. The fact that some seeds found their way to every available kind of soil argues forcefully in favor of God’s trust and confidence that every kind of soil is arable enough to fructify the word of God, that is why every soil is given a chance to prove itself as fruitful no matter the challenges each soil contains for the viability of the Word of God.
Starting, then, on a positive note of hope that God loves and fructifies every seed of his Word on all kinds of soils, the responsibility to fructify soils that have obstacles (thorns and rocks) towards its arability simply invites more hard work and tact in the care to provide for challenged soils.
Therefore, the parable of the Sower or should we say the parable of the “challenged soils” encourages creativity on the part of those of us with rocky-like and thorny-like hearts that assimilate with great difficulties the seed of the Word of God. But first, we need to discern what concretely our thorns and rocks are prior to attending to them.
Our thorns and rocks may be our level of education, which leads us to question everything, even the Word of God. Our thorns and rocks may be our understanding of freedom as unfettered, which does not make room for accepting any responsibility to live in accordance with those God’s rules and regulations we consider at variance with our preferred ways of living. The rocks and thorns will depend on everyone’s situations, hence, defy generalization.
The realization that the harvest of the seed of the Word of God sown on every soil/heart takes place at the end of each human life and existence tells the story of God’s patience with all rocky and thorny hearts to have enough time to turn their soils/hearts into arable soils. This is the language of Divine Mercy revealed through Sr. Faustina and universalized in the Roman Catholic Church by Pope St. John-Paul II.
Our second reading admits that the process of transforming our thorny and rocky lives into arable soils comes with a lot of inconveniences or mourning and weeping. The dangers and challenges Paul’s missionary journeys narrate are instances of turning challenges into opportunities for success and salvation. The groans of which Paul speaks are human efforts to frack rocky hearts and clear them of thorns that make conversion impossible. Just imagine how many years of education it takes to become a scientist prior to fracking rocks to bring out oil! Likewise, the fruitfulness of a rocky soil is possible with lots of patience and hard work.
The guarantee that God’s Word and purposes do not fail to achieve their missions, in our first reading, ties in with a God who waits for millennia to carry through with his plans pronounced through the lips of prophets who spoke once upon a time. God waits for and on those of us with thorny and rocky hearts for as long as it takes, as long as a lifetime for our yields to be gathered in. We must remember that productivity is commensurate to the kind of soil in question. Hence, what matters is to produce some fruits at the harvest time, no matter how negligible!
The pivotal role of hope in the parable of the Sower or “the parable of challenges soils” is to focus on the finishing line, remembering that “hope” is a theological virtue that makes us believe that God will do everything for our salvation. The intentional planting of the seed of the Word of God on thorny and rocky soils is itself an impetus to make our own (appropriate) God’s magnanimous project for the salvation of the good, the bad, and the ugly through the effusion of his word on every kind of soil. It follows that no excuse is acceptable to imagine that some are found outside of God’s salvific plans because “no one is left out”!
Assignment for the Week:
Never consider yourself or anyone as condemned, but redeemable with commensurate efforts.