The generous sower of the four soils

 ‘Hear then the parable of the sower’ (Matt 13:18)

Matthew 13:1-23 (Year A: Fifth Sunday after Trinity 16^nd July 2017)

Some weeks ago I bought some flowers together with a bag of moss as well as pots to contain the soil and flowers.  Along with other flowers, the newly acquired plants on my apartment balcony are doing very well – moistened as they are by the gentle sea breezes and frequent damp as well as nourished by occasional spots of sunshine from a hesitant Irish afternoon sun in between showers.  I didn’t plant those flowers: someone else did. However, I am now responsible for ensuring that they are looked after on a daily basis.  It is known not to rain for a number of consecutive days, here. The sea breezes quickly dry out the soil in the plant boxes and pots when this happens.

Sowing, planting, minding, pruning, replanting, waiting and letting grow are part of a natural life-rhythm. Our lives follow a seasonal pattern and we part of a living, growing and decaying and re-birthing universe. Nothing stands still. A mystery lies at the heart of all life. We are wise to go with the natural grains of nature and respect the delicate balance of life.

The saying ‘what we sow we reap’ has special meaning. Indeed, we could just as easily say ‘what others sow, we reap and what we sow, others reap’. I mind the plants because I want to see them flowering and giving a special beauty to all who pass by. They, also, remind me of my late mother who loved plants and had many of them about the house and in the garden where I grew up.

An observant person sees the hand of the creator in the natural rhythms of nature. Jesus was one such person. For him, growing up in a rural setting, the every-year process of sowing, waiting and reaping were very close. He drew insight from hearing, watching, understanding and communicating.  I dare say that not a small amount of the material for his parable or story-telling was told to Mary and to Joseph and his own family.

Beneath the image of sowing is the idea of growth and change which is not under our control. We sow and then we walk away for a while. Things happen. We cannot force anything. Not everything sown will sprout or grow. Some will. Then, some will shoot up for a while and quickly fade again. Jesus could read into these natural processes the wisdom of living. He saw patterns in the way people live and develop and relate to others. He probably encountered zealous young men who devoted themselves to prayer, fasting and study of the Torah but, who did not last the course. They had no roots.  Others embraced a life of devotion and scholarship only to become weighed down by concerns and addictions to power and control over others. They never really flourished. Then, others gave themselves where they were planted and bore much fruit as husbands, wives, leaders, servants or prophets like his daring cousin, John (the Baptist).

It would be easy to read the Parable of the Sower as a template for four different types of people:

1. Those who don’t listen or will not take in the Word of God (the ‘incurable sceptics’).
2. Those who go with it – possibly even enthusiastically – but then fall away (the ‘happy-clappy zealots’).
3. Those who go with it and might even make a lifelong commitment but due to the circumstances of life and the pleasures and worries of life succumb to alternative paths (the ‘burnt out’).
4. Those who embrace the Word and let it grow and grow and from which they flourish and flourish. (many around us).

We might identify ourselves in each of these four soils in different parts of our lives or in different phases of life. For example, one might have entered upon the religious life in young adulthood but was not given the gift of perseverance as the saying goes. Then, one might re-discover a calling to serve in some way that reignites a seed sown much earlier. Then again, one might follow the painful path of a broken relationship after many, many years of thorns that choked a loving relationship. However, God works in mysterious ways and is generous in the sowing of new seeds and possibilities. Rather than seeing each of the four soils as a series of ‘single last chance saloons’ we may be looking at the generosity of God who always has new seeds to scatter along our way no matter what came before or how old we are. We might even be surprised by new plants and flourishing like those hardy geraniums facing the occasional easterly gale from the Irish sea on my apartment balcony.

From among the worries, cares, hardness and back-sliding the story urges us to be like the fourth soil – the fertile soil – open, ready, receptive and active. But there is another take on this. Perhaps we feel that we are planted in a very stony place at this time and in this place? And we feel trapped there. The story of the sower urges us to think again. We may be called to thrust down deep roots where we are. And miracles can happen in the ordinary.

And in speaking of sowing we know from the parables of Jesus that bad seeds yielding bad results in the form of weeds and thorns can also find their way into our hearts and minds. We must be vigilant. The best response to bad seeds is good seeds and the cultivation of good seeds in the soils of our innermost hearts.

To flourish as children of God we need to be:

• Disposed, open and attentive to life (the fertile soil)
• Ready to receive the watering and sunshine of prayerfulness, sacramental life and communion with others in the living out of faith.
• Always ready to start again and be open to God’s never-failing generosity
• Flourish where we are planted!

Don’t be surprised if new and good seeds are sown where you are.