One of Jesus’ strategies in preaching
the Good News is the use of parables. Parables are realities about the Kingdom of
God expressed in human experiences. These parables of Jesus are making the
truth about the Kingdom more concrete and understandable. They are vivid
pictures of the abstract truth about the Kingdom. These parables open our minds
and hearts by beginning from where we are and what situation we are in. They
also attract the attention and interest of those who listen to them, and in
doing so, the hearers are compelled to discover the truth and meaning behind
the story. Thanks to Jesus’ parables, we are now able to understand (though
still up to a certain limit only, because Jesus is God and therefore His mind
is a way beyond our minds, a tiny speck to the vastness of His boundless
knowledge) His teachings through our own experiences.
As
a child, I was very fond of listening to stories. I had this illustrated Bible
given to me by my late grandfather. One of the most memorable illustrated
stories which had a great impact on me is the Parable of the Sower. I live in a
barrio where majority of the
residents are farmers, and so, even just through observation, I know how it is
like living in the fields: rising very early in the morning to pasture the
carabaos while at the same time sipping hot coffee from a big tin mug, going
out to the field to check if there is enough water flowing to the rice paddies,
and of course, especially now that the rainy season has begun, the sowing of
seeds like rice and corn. Similarly, those who were listening to Jesus surely
knew how it is like sowing seeds when He told them the Parable of the Sower.
Many
exegetes and biblical scholars have given many good interpretations and in-depth
reflections about this parable, most of which focused on the different kinds of
soil presented in the story. In this reflection, I would like to focus on the
work of the sower in sowing the seeds and its significance in the Church’s
mission as the primordial sower of
God’s words.
The
parable is directed to both the hearers and those who preach the Word. There
are diverse ways of accepting the word of God, and as the parable describes it,
the fruit which it produces depends on the kind of soil, that is, the kind of
heart of the person who accepts it. The parable is not only meant to say
something to the listening crowds, but it is also meant to reach those who
preach the Word, then the disciples and now the Church.
Jesus
surely is the Preacher par excellence.
He is the wisest and the most dumbfounding preacher who ever walked the earth. But
we should admit it: He had very little achievement in His preaching. Most of
the time, He was banished from synagogues. The Pharisees and the religious
leaders were His most hostile critics. They even put Him to death because of
His preaching! Many crowds followed Him in many places just to listen to His
teachings. There were many people who witnessed and received His healing power.
But then, there were so few of them who changed their way of life. Many of them
went away and forgot whatever He taught. What, then, is the parable teaching
us?
The yield is sure to come. In the
parable, some seeds may have fallen on the rocky road, thorny soil and shallow
soil. All of them did not produce any fruit. But then, in spite of all these,
the harvest surely came (as seen on the climax of the parable). Reason would
tell us that not all seeds grow and bear fruit. Some may have the same fate as
those seeds in the parable. But despite this, the farmer does not stop sowing
the seeds. Neither does it make him lose hope for the coming of the harvest. Even
if some seeds are wasted, the harvest will surely come.
We do the sowing and God will guide the
growing. As ministers of the Word, priests have the mission to preach it in
its entirety and certainty. As the alter sower
of God’s living Word, the priest’s job is to get busy sowing. But again, the
seeds of God’s Word may have reached different kinds of soil. We are
commissioned to sow the seed out on the wide fields of humanity, to sow it
everywhere, unhindered by the birds waiting to take away the seeds, or the
weeds ready to choke it. What is important is that the priest is faithful to
his task, that is, to continue sowing the seeds and to leave the continuity of
growing in the hands of God.
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