Sowers and prophets

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today describe the nature of a call from God which is discerned by Jeremiah to bring true conversion to the people of his time in the kingdom of Judah. The elements of this call apply to all believers as we need to become aware of how we are to accept our mission to draw people and witness the harvest for the Lord which is referred to by Matthew in the parable taught by Jesus of the sower. Andy Alexander SJ reflects on the power of both these texts for people today who may be reluctant to seek and act on their mission from God because of being timid about their ability to speak or witness. Friar Jude Winkler notes that the mission which Jeremiah accepts will cause him to act counter to the culture which would expect silence from so young a man. This culture had moved away from the direction of Moses to love God with their whole heart, soul and strength. Friar Jude comments that the elements of the parable of the sower address these three areas of love as the path, rocky soil and thorns. The seed which perishes on the path is not received by the whole heart, the site of our intellect in Jesus time, the ideas of God are rejected by the people. This occurred in Jeremiah’s time. Jesus was rejected by His people and we will be dismissed for expressing the ideas of the Living God today. The rocky soil, Friar Jude explains, relates to our life and soul which depends on being in communion with God. Our decisions to step away from this union are times when the seed is uprooted. The thorns which threaten our fruitfulness are the pleasures and passions of the world which blunted the attention of the pre exile Jews to whom Jeremiah spoke and which continue to distract our society and ourselves from seeking and accepting the spiritual strength from God to respond as Jeremiah and the psalmist to sing of the salvation of the Lord.