… a reflection on today’s Sacred Scripture:
“He spoke to them at length in parables.” (Matthew 13:3)
The teaching technique Jesus used was established by His Father, who gave Jesus everything. Stories or parables were the method God chose to reveal the unseen to us through His Son. This way, we identify with what’s familiar to us so we can see more clearly the mysteries of Heaven. But before we can understand anything, we must do what Jesus taught those gathered around Him in today’s parable of the sower: listen. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” (Matthew 13:9)
In this story, Jesus shows a relationship between us and soil. Like soil, we become richer by what God reveals to us. The more we listen, the more He reveals—the richer we become, and we begin to produce fruit that brings joy to both God and us. But if we only listen for awhile and then allow ourselves to be drawn in by earthly pleasures, we’ll resemble the first three kinds of soil in the parable, and wither for lack of roots. If we don’t listen at all and let sin take over like weeds, God’s Truth gets choked out altogether and we stop growing. Jesus is teaching us how to develop and deepen our relationship with Him so we won’t be like the shallow or unfertile soil where nothing ever grows.
Certainly, our objective is devotion to God and love of neighbor; Jesus simply uses images from our everyday life such as seed and soil to help us understand and become rich in the ways of Heaven, not in the ways of this world. When we cultivate our own will, Jesus, the Master Sower will take care of tending our minds and hearts.
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