INTRODUCTION
How many Christians are truly living a productive spiritual lives? This question forms the central message of today’s liturgy of the word carefully chosen to activate in us a reflection on God’s continuous effort to help us produce fruits.The first reading is Isaiah’ account of how God professes his readiness to incarnate his Word in the lives of his people longing for liberation from the babylonian exile. St. Paul affirms in the second reading that suffering is part of human experience. The seed of God we receive is not a guarantee not to encounter challenges. We are sometimes exposed to scorching sun and thorns. But in all these, when suffering is accepted as part of the yes to God then it leads us to redemption. Matthew’s Gospel account is a reminder of the generosity of God who sows the seed of his love in our hearts and expects the fruits. But it is obvious that the problem is not the seed, rather the surface that receives the it; and more than just the surface still, the seed will produce when we cooperate with God who is in charge. It takes time to produce. It needs water. It needs to struggle through scorching heat, and it’s growth can be stunted by other circumstances. Thus, the harvest may not be immediately visible when we expect it, but He will surely make it produce at the appointed time.
FIRST READING: Isaiah 55:10-11
The second part of the book of prophet Isaiah also called Deutero-Isaiah (chapters 40-55) is considered as the book of consolation. It was addressed to Jews in babylonian exile longing to return to their homeland. It was in the heat of their suffering that the first verses of the chapter 40 echoed; “Console my people, console them, says the Lord. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and cry to her that her period of service is ended…” (v.1-2).
Today’s reading from the chapter 55 that concludes this second book of Isaiah simply rechoes the mesage of the chapter 40. God uses an agricultural imagery to communicate the power of his Word. Plants always thirst for water. Infact their survival and their productivity depend heavily on water.The exile experience can be likened to an experience of dryness, unproductivity and struggle for survival. And as no plant resists water, the exiles could not possibly resist the Word as a rain of consolation and deliverance: “Yes you will go out with joy and be led away in safety” (v.12). Infact Isaiah reports this message as a new era of productivity in the life of the exiles, and which shall only be accomplished through their confident trust and adherence to the Word of Yahweh their God. Thus, they will return to their land, and it will be a return into spiritual fertility.
SECOND READING: Romans 8:18-23
In this passage, descriptions of our spiritual distress are combined with descriptions of nature’s distress. Following in Jesus’ footsteps, Paul reminds the community in Rome of their obligation to trust God’s word. But he does not use Isaiah’s farming imagery. Instead, Paul states that the sin of Adam has brought corruption both to humankind and to nature. Genesis 3:14-19 describes nature turning against the convicted Adam and Eve. For Paul, then, what God is doing for us in Christ will redeem, not just mankind, but nature too. Paul uses agricultural imagery when he explains to his readers that they enjoy “the first fruits of the Spirit.” Paul advises us to be patient in awaiting redemption and the kingdom (Fr Anthony kadavil).
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:1-23
If we must understand the message of this chapter 13 of the gospel of Matthew, then we just have to take a quick look at the preceding chapter 12. There is no better way to describe it than the chapter of controversies. First it was the hunger of Jesus’ disciples and their plucking of grain of corn on the Sabbath that provoked controversy between Jesus and the Pharisees(12:1-8). Jesus went ahead to inflame this controversy by carrying out healing of a man with dried arm on the Sabbath (12:9-14). And guess what? It was inside the synagogue. His deliverance of a demoniac on the same Sabbath was greeted with accusation from his adversaries as carrying out healing by the power of Beelzebul. (12:22-32). The scribes and Pharisees asked him for a sign to prove his divine authority, and he responded with harsh provocation (12:38-45). It was in the midst of these controversies that the passage links us to chapter 13 which expresses how men respond to God’s invitation to salvation. Infact it was the hostility and the rejection of Jesus by the religious authorities of his time that Jesus will translate into the unproductive seeds of the parable. In this chapter, Jesus explains the mystery of the Kingdom of God with an agricultural imagery, the seed, the seed sower and the different surfaces that represent the acceptance and rejection of the message of the Kingdom.
The use of parable is dear to Jesus. They are tales of life, common activities and daily situations that are transformed into a religious and moral teaching.
Meditating on the parable of the sower, the first thing that should come to the mind is the image of a farmer who does not know how to sow; one who is so wasteful with the seeds and taking no account of where they fall. The question is: which type of wise farmer will sow on a rock, on the road side and among the thorns?
Here, the sowing is more than just a broadcast system. In the broadcast system, the farmer spreads the seeds within a given space with target, but in this case, the seeds even started falling from the roadside. It means that the farmer was not even mindful of the seeds.
Well Matthew explains that God is that unwise farmer. His hands are full of seeds. He is so generous with his seeds. He sows freely on every surface because every surface is important for him. Yes it a gospel message that in the Kingdom of God there is no exclusion, and no one is ever discriminated because his ground is rocky or full of thorns. God continues to sow generously on every surface. He never gets tired of sowing, neither is he ever discouraged with the nature of the ground.
It is simply a story of the prodigality of God’s love. The heart of man is sometimes so hard like the rocky ground, so wicked like the choking thorns and so wayward like the road that is used by all. It shows great resistance to the love that is being sown to it. It is very capable of suffocating the Word of life to death. Matthew tells us today that the patient God will continue to sow. He is not so much concerned with the quality of the ground because his love is capable of making the seed to grow anywhere. But we have seen plants that grow and survive on rocks, among thorns and even on the roadside. What is the secret? This explains the fact that however the surface might look like, as long as it cooperates with God, it will germinate and survive and produce.
LIFE MESSAGE
1. THE CHURCH AND THE SEED
The sowing of the seed of the faith is the vocation of the church. Like her bridegroom, she is often prodigal with the sowing of the seeds through proclaiming the Gospel among every tribe, race and people, and often in far-away jungles and in urban and village ghettos. Most often, the bearers of the seeds are put to death while others spend donkey years on the mission field waiting patiently to see the seed grow, yet with little or no positive response. In most cases, the sower spends a good number of hours preparing the seed to sow in the heart of many, but only to see five to ten people before him. It is part of the discouragement of many preachers that often make then resolve not to spend time again for preparations.
But the parable teaches us today that we shouldn’t bother much about the ground or think that our effort is not yielding any result. The ministers of the word must understand that both the ground and the seed belong to God. Thus his vocation is to keep sowing and not to keep account book of the germinated seeds. God takes care of the germination and he alone knows which seed should produce fruits, and he will gather them at the appointed time; in thirties, in sixties and in hundreds.
2. WHICH SURFACES ARE WE?
We often sing about the generosity of God and yet it is hard for us to cooperate with him. God has given us countless opportunities to produce fruits, yet we keep suffocating his seed of love in us. We give in to rocky heart and thorny soul and sometimes wayward lifestyles that give the ‘birds’ the opportunity to eat up the seed of God in us.
3. LET YOUR WORRIES NOT CHOKE THE SEED
Should we worry about life, about our future and that of our family welfare? Yes. But what kind of worry? Is it the worry that allows God to take the lead or the one that puts him behind the bar? The illusion that many people have, and which has led them to abandon God in difficult times is that they felt the so called good and loving Father allowed them to go through a whole lot. Have we ever wondered about what would befall on us if God truly does not care as many think? We go to bed and wake up, and we think we have made it. Psalm 121:4 says, “He neither sleeps nor slumbers, Israel’s guard”. We enjoy our sleep while he watches over us even against the invisible horrors of the night and the continuous operations of the kingdom of darkness that spreads its tent of power during the night time. Friends, let us not allow the worries of this life to distract us from God even when we know that we can’t change those situations on our own. When life tends to throw rocks know you, just pick those rocks and build an altar for God. Yes, when your rock of destruction becomes your altar, then you have just sacrificed it to God. And the God who descends on the altar of the prayer of his people will subdue your worries. You may be starring on those worries, yet your mind is at peace.
When it blows hot and pours down brimstone, just take it to God in prayer. Hannah mounted the Temple and mopped the flow with her tears of prayer. She prayed until she was lost in voiceless moving lips. She prayed until she was thought to be drunk. Yes because she disconnected herself from her worries and connected it to heaven and the result is prayer answered. (1 Sam. 1). God worries with us, but He cannot act unless we tell Him to take the lead.
PRAYER
Father, thank you for the seed of your Word; and since You know how fragile we are, then do not allow the problems that quake our peace to distract us from you our Eternal seed sower. Help us to produce fruits even with our infertile and weak lives. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
