The parables, as
Jesus reminds, are aids in which to understand the “mysteries of the kingdom of
heaven,” so that the more we meditate upon them, the more we come to understand
what it means to search and strive for that kingdom.
That is why Jesus says: “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” So that the more we search the more we learn, because God’s mysteries are inexhaustible, and the more we uncover the more we grow in our understanding and in our love of Him.
This, too, is why many saints and scholars will tell us, if we look at this Gospel and understand the soil as our hearts, the sower as the Holy Spirit and the seed as the Word of God, then we will also come to see that the growth of that seed depends upon us.
And, while every single day we are inundated with words, spoken from all different directions, from all different sources, something different happens or should happen when those words are compared to this Word, the Word of God.
Because, there is something there that is not present in our words, it has power, it has authority and goes beyond something that simply inspires us, like a poem or novel, instead, it moves us to love and to act in accordance with God’s Will.
So that the more our hearts are open to that Word, the more of an effect it will have upon us. In fact, that is the reason why sometimes we may hear the Word but don’t believe or accept what we hear.
Or, other times allow our hearts to be so hardened that the Word means nothing to us and cannot take root. And still other times, be inspired by the Word, moved by it, seemingly changed by what we have heard, until other things take precedence over it, choking it with the thorns of our own anxieties, our desires and wants, allowing them to uproot our stability and to cause the very foundation of that word to crumble.
And the reason is because the seed of the Word is not meant to just be planted in the different soils of our hearts, as it were, the seed of the Word is meant to, literally, change the ground upon which it is planted, it is meant to transform who we are.
And, if any of you garden or farm you know what that means, the ground needs to be tilled, it needs to be turned over, it needs to be softened so that it can establish roots.
That is why if our desire is to become a saint, and, believe it or not, it should be everyone’s desire, then we must be willing to endure the trials and tribulations that can bring us there, we must be willing to become broken, to be turned over and tilled in order to become the instrument through which God wants to work.
Because, to truly understand, hear, see and be healed then we need to allow our hearts to be changed, we need its soil to become rich, we need to be open to what God wants to do in our lives even if it means we must look at the world from the view of the Cross. However, as St. Paul beautifully reminds in our second reading: “The sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”
That is why when our hearts start to change we start to truly hear His Word and we start to come to understand it so that it bears fruit in ways we could never imagine, so much so, that it multiplies itself not once or twice, but, indeed, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
And when that happens, we come to see that by allowing it to fall on such fertile ground that tiny seed that germinated and grew in our own hearts has the same potential, the same power, to do the same in another, and we see even more importantly, that the seed no longer remains a seed but, rather, becomes what God intended it to be from the very beginning, a small piece of the kingdom of Heaven within us.
That is why Jesus says: “To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” So that the more we search the more we learn, because God’s mysteries are inexhaustible, and the more we uncover the more we grow in our understanding and in our love of Him.
This, too, is why many saints and scholars will tell us, if we look at this Gospel and understand the soil as our hearts, the sower as the Holy Spirit and the seed as the Word of God, then we will also come to see that the growth of that seed depends upon us.
And, while every single day we are inundated with words, spoken from all different directions, from all different sources, something different happens or should happen when those words are compared to this Word, the Word of God.
Because, there is something there that is not present in our words, it has power, it has authority and goes beyond something that simply inspires us, like a poem or novel, instead, it moves us to love and to act in accordance with God’s Will.
So that the more our hearts are open to that Word, the more of an effect it will have upon us. In fact, that is the reason why sometimes we may hear the Word but don’t believe or accept what we hear.
Or, other times allow our hearts to be so hardened that the Word means nothing to us and cannot take root. And still other times, be inspired by the Word, moved by it, seemingly changed by what we have heard, until other things take precedence over it, choking it with the thorns of our own anxieties, our desires and wants, allowing them to uproot our stability and to cause the very foundation of that word to crumble.
And the reason is because the seed of the Word is not meant to just be planted in the different soils of our hearts, as it were, the seed of the Word is meant to, literally, change the ground upon which it is planted, it is meant to transform who we are.
And, if any of you garden or farm you know what that means, the ground needs to be tilled, it needs to be turned over, it needs to be softened so that it can establish roots.
That is why if our desire is to become a saint, and, believe it or not, it should be everyone’s desire, then we must be willing to endure the trials and tribulations that can bring us there, we must be willing to become broken, to be turned over and tilled in order to become the instrument through which God wants to work.
Because, to truly understand, hear, see and be healed then we need to allow our hearts to be changed, we need its soil to become rich, we need to be open to what God wants to do in our lives even if it means we must look at the world from the view of the Cross. However, as St. Paul beautifully reminds in our second reading: “The sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.”
That is why when our hearts start to change we start to truly hear His Word and we start to come to understand it so that it bears fruit in ways we could never imagine, so much so, that it multiplies itself not once or twice, but, indeed, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
And when that happens, we come to see that by allowing it to fall on such fertile ground that tiny seed that germinated and grew in our own hearts has the same potential, the same power, to do the same in another, and we see even more importantly, that the seed no longer remains a seed but, rather, becomes what God intended it to be from the very beginning, a small piece of the kingdom of Heaven within us.
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