Receiving the Sower

The invitation of God to people to be in communion is delivered in the Word. The Roman Catholic Lectionary today presents texts from Deutero-Isaiah and the Gospel of Matthew which describe the fertility of the Word of God when it is received by people. The passage from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah compares the Word of God to rain and snow which acts upon the earth to provide life and growth in accord with the Will of God. Jeanne Schuler reflects on our experience of the growing season when this miracle of softening the soil with moisture brings life. The letter of Paul to the Romans contains a theme which Friar Jude Winkler identifies as the necessity for purification of creation which has been taken away from openness to God by our decisions to love self above God and others. He compares our struggle for purification as we suffer to escape our distractions as like the pains of labour which precede birth. Friar Jude addresses the decision of Jesus to speak in parables like that of the sower today in the Gospel of Matthew as the means whereby the message of the Word might be available to those who have not engaged deeply with His message. The decision to be in communion with God is ours and we need to receive the invitation. A message of this parable is that the direction of Deuteronomy 6:5, which would be well known by the Jewish audience to whom this Gospel is addressed calls for us to love God with our whole heart, soul and strength. Friar Jude sees the path in the parable as the heart or seat of intellect which passes on the Word in the seed as just another idea and our understanding does not try to embrace the message. The rocky soil is our soul where the persecutions and ridicule from the world for our choice will keep our soul from struggling with the Word. The thorns which will come up in our experience are the result of our difficulty in using our whole strength to live in accord with the Will of God as received in the Word from the Sower. Jeanne Schuler notes that the easy response to these texts is to see ourselves as the good soil and the others outside of Christian community as paths, rocky soil and thorns. Jesus simply invites us to look inside at the way in which we receive the Word.