Today’s question is a straightforward one: What is a parable? Unfortunately, the answer to this simple question may not be straightforward. If you google the word “parable,” you’ll come up with some 6,780,000 hits. If you go to the one for the definition according to the American Heritage Dictionary, you’ll find the brief statement that a parable is: “a simple story illustrating a moral or religious lesson.” But if you search more deeply and go to the modern fount of wisdom called Wikipedia, you’ll find a three-page discussion about parables. If you surf over to the entry for the Catholic Encyclopedia, you’ll find fifteen pages about parables. If you wanted to, you could continue surfing the world-wide-web and obtain even more information about parables.
We tend to use the Internet for finding out about almost everything. It’s quick and efficient. We don’t like to wait for answers anymore. We no longer have the patience to sit and wait. We no longer take time to contemplate. If Jesus were able to use modern examples for his stories, his parables, it would be interesting to ponder if he would include some based on modern communication. Could we speculate on how God is like the Internet with 24/7 access for finding all the answers to our questions?
However, Jesus lived in a time of personal agriculture, when those who heard him knew about farming and tending sheep and not about I-pods and downloading. His parables about God and the Kingdom of God relied on stories about the sower and seeds and the soil upon which the seeds fell. Nevertheless, the disciples who heard the parable found in today’s gospel reading, asked Jesus their own question about parables. When he had finished telling the crowds about the sower, the seeds and the soil, his disciples gathered around him and asked: “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
His answer to them is perhaps a bit surprising. Matthew writes: “He said to them in reply, ‘Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. 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. This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.’” And he goes on to say: “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears, because they hear.”
Jesus then did something he seldom does, he explained the meaning of this parable. However, don’t jump to the conclusion his disciples, and us, for that matter, really appreciated his explanation. For one thing, there is more than one explanation.
This parable of the sower, the seeds, and the soil is told in all three synoptic gospels: Mark, Luke and Matthew. A slightly different interpretation is given in each one. I’d invite you to make your own comparisons during this coming week. However, for the present, let’s stick to today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel. We’ve heard this story many times before. The story about the sower, seeds and soil. And most of the time we tend to focus on the soil.
There is the trampled soil of the pathway where the birds came and ate the seed. There is the thin soil on the rocks where the seed quickly withered and died for lack of roots. There is the soil covered by weeds which choked out the growing seeds. Finally, there is the good soil where the seeds grew and produced fruit a hundred or silty or thirty-fold. Each time we hear this list we’re urged to consider what kind of soil are we? Hard soil, thin and rocky soil, soil harboring weeds, or rich soil for the growth of the word of God. The problem is: this interpretation tends to make us passive observers in the growth of the word of God. If we are merely the soil upon which the seed happens to fall, what responsibility do each of us have for the growth of the seed?
After all, the trampled earth did not ask to be trampled. The thin soil cannot, by itself, become rich soil. And what responsibility does the soil have if weeds happen to be growing there? However, we need not take on the passive role of the soil. In Matthew’s gospel, which is a teaching gospel, a gospel of instruction for new Christians, we hear Jesus’ interpretation:
● “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it … ● “The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a short time. ● “The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. ● “But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty-fold.”
According to Matthew’s gospel, we are not to be the passive soil but the active, growing seed. Everyone hears the word of the Kingdom of Heaven. But some do not understand what is meant by the kingdom, the reign of God, and do not continue to grow on the journey in and toward the kingdom. Others hear the word and do not have the stamina to grow in the word or to continue the journey in, and toward, the reign of God. Some hear the word and, yet, worldly concerns and daily living prevent them from continuing the journey or the growth of the seed planted within them.
But there are, also, those who hear the word and understand it. Theirs is not a superficial, intellectual knowledge but a deeper understanding in their hearts. They are the ones who put this understanding into practice. They are the ones who yield the fruit by which Christians are to be known. Jesus told his followers the meaning of his story about the kingdom in order to break open for them his words about the gift which God has given to them, the gift he gives to each of us. It is a gift demanding our cooperation in order to grow and to yield fruit.
It takes time to grow a seed, to BE a seed. Some people demand quick results and, unless they get them immediately, go on to other events, other desires. They give up even before they start. Others begin their growth, but do not have the inner strength to continue. Some allow the external, daily grind to interfere with their growth, with their journey. But then, there are those who take time to live with the mystery of the Kingdom.
Remember, Jesus said: “… knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been granted to you.” He goes on to say there are those who look but do not see. There are those who hear, but do not listen or understand. On the other hand, there are those who see not with their eyes, but with their soul. Those who hear, not with their ears, but with their heart. It is within the soul and heart that each of us sees and listens to his words. It is within the nurturing soul and heart that the words of the Kingdom grow.
At the beginning of the readings for today, we heard God speak through the Prophet Isaiah. “Thus says the LORD: Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
It is in our heart and soul that each of us prepares a place for the seed of God to be planted and to grow. The kingdom is for those who cooperate with the word of God, for those who are as patient with God, as if they were seeds planted in good, rich earth. We are not called to surf the world, to skim quickly over its surface. Rather, we are to grow patiently in and toward the Kingdom of God, the reign of Heaven.
We are to understand with our souls and with our hearts so that we can do the will of God and can achieve the end for which the word has been sent. Each of us is to become a living parable, a simple story illustrating the Kingdom of God is within us and each of us is becoming part of the reign of Heaven.
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time; July 13, 2008
Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt 13:1-23