The Seed of God's Word Sown in my Heart: Is It Bearing Fruit

In today's Gospel, Matthew 13:18-23, Jesus explains the parable of the sower.  Jesus is basically asking me the following questions:  Am I the "seed sown on the path," that is one who does not understand the Word of God and thus Satan "comes and steals away what was sown" in my heart? Or am I the one who gets all excited when I hear the word of God but in whom the word does not take root and thus when hardship hits I "immediately fall away" and thus the seed bears no fruit? Or, yet still,  is the soil of my heart so flooded with thorns, "worldly anxiety and the lure of riches [that] choke the word"  and thus no fruit is born either?

To understand the Word of God, I need to call upon the Holy Spirit to open my mind and heart and grace me with the strength to practice the discipline approach of spending regular time reflecting upon the Word of God in personal and familial prayer time as well in Liturgical, communal celebrations. If I engage in these substantive practises of seeking God in the Scriptures and praying for the grace to understand Jesus' message, my faith will be strengthened. My grip on God's Word will not a superficial, weak grip whereby when hardships occur I "immediately fall away," or abandon by faith journey but a hold that sustains me when "storms" strike!

Furthermore, I prepare the soil of my heart to be receptive to the seed of God's Word when I do not choke off this seed by "worldly anxieties and the lure of riches," by compulsive accumulation of unneeded material things and worldly pleasures, by excessive gluttonous eating and out-of-control drinking and drugging myself (my drug of choice may be sex or running from one relationship to another and another or seeking this and that and another thing to distract myself from the difficulties, the pain, the challenges of what may be going on in my life.

Lord, help me make choices that will deepen my relationship with You, increase my faithfulness to the vows I have made, whether marriage, religious life or priesthood, and become the best person you intend me to become.

God, the Sower of Seed

In today's Gospel, Mt. 13: 1-9, Jesus speaks to us about the sower who went out and sowed a bunch of seeds. Some fell on a well-used path and was quickly consumed by hungry birds. Other seed fell on rocky, shallow soil. It sprang up quickly but with shallow roots had no way to survive.  Still other seed ended up in soil populated with thorns. The thorns multiplied and choked off the seedling plants; they died.  And, yes, some seed fell on soil rich and yielded a rich harvest.

As I reflected upon this passage, I thought of many people who, in my mind, do not fit the description of soil  that yields a harvest worthy of the Kingdom.  The soil that these people cultivate does not bear fruit that will last into eternal life.

As I prayed, the Lord reminded me not to judge anyone but to follow Him and that He is God; there is no other.  Furthermore, the Spirit repeated that God sows good seed and that I need to prepare the soil of my  heart to receive it, nurture it, and allow it to bear fruit that will last into eternal life. It is important, I was reminded, that I do not let worries about what is going in the political arena choke off the seeds that the Sower is sowing.  "Trust me," God said to me in prayer, "and cast your cares upon Me. I am God; there is no other. I am a Warrior God, I will fight for what is right. And at the right moment, all those choosing evil will fall into the traps they are setting for themselves. I will not stop them against their wills.  Choose Me, Dorothy Ann. Choose Truth. Choose Love. Choose Life, not death." 

The power of prayer

In the psalm of today’s liturgy, Ps. 56, we pray: “For you have rescued me from death, my feet, too, from stumbling; that I may walk before God in the light of the living.”  And the Gospel, Luke 8: 4-15, speaks of the parable of the sower, spreading seed. Some seed fell where it was trampled upon and eaten up by birds. Some seed fell on rocky ground and did not grow while other seed fell among thorns and was choked off. Still other seed fell on rich ground, grew and produced rich fruit.

 

We are challenged to be “rich soil,” that is soil filled with nutrients, fertilized, moistened, open to God’s outpouring graces, nurtured by our living of the faith, of our imitation of Christ, of our practicing the Beatitudes and loving God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind and our neighbor as ourselves (cf. Lk 10:27). 

This morning I brought “the fertilizer” of a particular experience to the Lord in prayer. I was grappling with the request to attend a fundraiser to support homeless shelters run by one of my fellow Sisters.  I was resisting with the excuse: I know no one. I do not want to give up a weekend, etc..  With reservation, I asked the Lord for feedback, as I was also feeling selfish for not feeling gung-ho about attending and I was also afraid of the Lord’s answer.   The Lord challenged me for being the “rich man” looking at Lazarus at his gate and doing nothing. I realized the invitation to attend this fundraiser was an opportunity for me to participate in the ministry to the homeless, a ministry that gives these unfortunate persons a chance to regain their dignity, learn ways to save money, find jobs and take themselves off the street.  In short, the Lord “rescued me from death, my feet, too, from stumbling; that I may walk before God in the light of the living.”

In truth, prayer  transforms rocky soil into receptive soil, rescues seeds choked off by a zillion excuses (thorns in the spiritual life) and transplants them into soil receptive to graces. Taking time to consult with the Lord enables all of us to be changed by the Living Word of God, a Word that cuts to the marrow of our bones, revealing our sinful, selfish motives. That can be risky and maybe the reason, many times, we keep busy and don’t take time to listen to the Lord in prayer.