The sower goes to sow

Written by BPNews Team | 28 January 2010

15th Sunday in ordinary time
(Green) Cycle A/ Year II (July 13, 2008)
Is 55:10-11/ Rom 8:18-23/ Mt 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus portrays Himself as the sower who sows the Word of God to different kinds of people. There are people on whom the Word of God is wasted and profaned because it is not accepted wholeheartedly; yet there are also some on whom the Word of God brings fruit because it is treated as a principle of Life. Jesus addresses the parable to all especially to us Christians who profess to be His followers. We must then examine our hearts to know which kind of people are we and so respond to the call of Christ in the parable.

Certainly, all of us must be the good soil like the Apostles, Martyrs and Saints on whom the Word of God has produced fruit, some thirty, others sixty and still others a hundredfold. The secret of their lives is that they not only put God as the top priority in their lives, but also lived their lives only for God and not even for themselves. Jesus Christ exhorts us in the Gospel to bear fruit because He has already sown the Word of God. All the things that we have to do is to be receptive to the Word of God, entrust ourselves to God and His Divine Providence, and make Christ’s and His Catholic Church’s teachings as the guide and principle of our lives. 

As Christians, on the other hand, we are not only called to bear fruit but also to sow the Word of God to others. We are by our vocation missionaries. Called to proclaim the love of God amidst the apathetic people and culture, we must do our best to affect the lives of others by doing good things to them even if they do not return any favor nor they give importance to what we do for them. Like the sower in the gospel, we must not lose hope that whatever good things that we do for others will in God’s own time also bring fruit if not for them, at least for us, and if not now, certainly in the next life. 

We must not forget that the Sower is none other than Christ and the seed is not only the Word of God but also each of us. Christ has sown us into this world to bear much fruit. The fruits that Christ asks of us are not simply the products of our professions. He does not demand that we become rich, powerful and famous; He does not require us to have a lot of inventions, material possessions, or works. Rather, the fruits that Christ expects from us and exacts us to produce are the fruits of love. How many hungry have we fed? How many innocent have we instructed? How many sick have we visited and helped? How many poor and beggars have we helped and upgraded the lives? How many lonely have we consoled and made happy? How many enemies have we forgiven? How many strangers have we welcomed and served at home? These are the things that we Christians must preoccupy with because the worth of our earthly lives will be measured by Christ by the way we have treated and served our friends and enemies. 

As seeds, we will grow and bear fruit only when we fall and die. We must then be willing to sacrifice our own desires and ambitions in life for the sake of the Will and Plan of God. We must humble ourselves in front of God and of people and consider ourselves as servants of Christ who are willing to be trampled down and even disgraced in the course of our service to our neighbors. In other words, we must be willing to die to ourselves so that Christ may live in us because only those who live the life of Christ bear fruit and become children of God. Let us ask the intercession of the Blessed Mother that she may help us pattern our lives to the life of the Sower, Jesus Christ, our Lord.