The Good Soil is within

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today includes the Parable of the Sower from Matthew’s Gospel. This story tells the fate of seed that falls in four locations; the path, rocky ground, among thorns and in good soil. Recently, the media have featured articles about the “bad seed”. The implication of the bad seed is someone who is inherently bad. This is not the idea in today’s parable. Today the preparation for growth and the environment for growth are probed. The will to hear the news for growth is an essential first step. What creates this desire to hear? Some observers of human spiritual development like Richard Rohr suggest that great love and great suffering are pathways to defeating the ego and opening the person to hear the “good news”. The commissioning of the prophet Jeremiah is in response to an invitation from God, with which Jeremiah expresses much unworthiness, yet he is open to allow God to heal the unworthy sense which holds him back. This is the “good soil” which was the spiritual environment of Jeremiah. He tells of hearing the Word of God and of a revelation that he has always been “known” to the Divine. This foundation of intimacy with the Divine exists in all humanity through the indwelling Spirit. The preparation for the sowing of seeds for growth is to connect with the inner “good soil” within all people which is in communion with God.