The Double Message – Parable of the Sower and the Seed

by Marcellino D'Ambrosio, Ph.D. | July 8, 2011 12:01 am

Editor’s Note: Reflection on the Mass readings for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A); Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalms 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9[1]

The Sower by Jean-François Millet

I’ve always loved gardening.  Seeds I’ve planted include carrot, cucumber, and of course, zucchini.  In each case, I’ve planted seeds in neat rows, expecting nearly all of them to sprout and yield fruit.

But the farmer in Jesus’ parable (Mat 13:1-23) uses the broadcast method.  Lots of seed cast everywhere.  And predictably, many of these seeds do not produce.  Some get eaten by birds.  Some sprout but then wither. Some seedlings get choked out by weeds.  Finally a few yield varying amounts of grain.

At the end of the story, Jesus says “they who have ears, let them hear.”  In other words, he wants us to learn something and take some action steps. To respond to this parable adequately, we must view it from two different angles.

Christians as the Seed

The first is to look at the story as if we are the seed.

In speaking to us as seed, Jesus is saying: “be careful. If you don’t make the effort to get thoroughly rooted in your Catholic faith, you just might not make it.  If you do manage to survive, you might produce absolutely nothing.  But you are called to bear much fruit (John 15), to yield 100 fold, to be a saint, to leave a mark on the lives of many that will last forever.  Don’t settle for anything less!”

Christians as the Sower

On the other hand, we can look at the parable as if we were the farmer. Vatican II and all the Popes since have stated repeatedly and unequivocally that each of us is called to be an evangelizer, to tell others that Jesus Christ changes lives eternally and that the place to encounter him most fully is within the Catholic Church. “But,” you may protest, “I tried it a few times and got nowhere. I just don’t have the personality, don’t have the gift”

Jesus, the Son of God, indisputably had both the personality and the gift.  Yet when he sowed seed, much of it still ended up as bird food.  Consider the thousands he fed with loaves and fishes, the multitude that heard his sermon on the mount, the throngs that welcomed him on Palm Sunday.  Yet on the day of Pentecost, there were only 120 left in the cenacle, awaiting the Holy Spirit.  Notice, though, that the fruit borne by these 120 plants eventually filled the whole world!

To get the few that bear fruit, lots of seed must be sown by lots of people.  So regardless of whether or not we think we have green thumbs, we farmers are being commanded through this parable to get the seed out there, sowing it everywhere we go, undeterred by the birds, the weeds, and the scorching sun.

So the parable of the sower has a twofold message: as seed, our job is to get busy growing.  As farmers, our job is to get busy sowing.


Acknowledgement

Dr. Marcellino D’Ambrosio writes from Texas. For his resources or info on his pilgrimages to Rome and the Holy Land, visit www.crossroadsinitiative.com [2]or call 1.800.803.0118.

This article originally appeared in Our Sunday Visitor as a reflection on the Mass readings 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A). It is reproduced here by permission of the author.

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Endnotes:
  1. Isaiah 55:10-11; Psalms 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9: http://www.usccb.org/nab/071011.shtml
  2. www.crossroadsinitiative.com : http://www.dritaly.com/

Source URL: https://integratedcatholiclife.org/2011/07/dambrosio-parable-sower-and-the-seed/