Friday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 22, 2022

Matthew 13, 18-23

Jesus said to his disciples: “Hear the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, and the Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. 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 time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. 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 thirtyfold.”

Having explained to the Apostles why he preaches to the crowd in parables, the Lord explains to them the Parable of the Sower.  The Evangelists do not show him explaining his other parables, interestingly.  According to St. Mark’s recounting of this incident, the Lord Jesus reproached the Apostles for not understanding this parable: “Are you ignorant of this parable? and how shall you understand any other parable?” (Mark 4, 13).  Possibly this motivated them to listen more closely to him and to ponder more carefully what he told them.

“The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it.”  The word here translated as “understanding” can also mean “considering”, and this would seem to be the better way to translate it, for a person may fail to understand due to his own inherent limitations, and this seems unfair in the context.  But a person who fails to consider the word of God is too slothful or proud to do so.  “The Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.”  The person too slothful or proud to examine the word of the Kingdom already belongs to the Evil One, and he will not let him go.  

“The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.”  Even an imperfect knowledge of the news of redemption from sin brings joy to the heart.  It is the first stirring of grace there.  “But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.”  To hear the word of God and to rejoice at its hearing does not indicate that this person is saved.  Taking the word to heart and living it, through good times and hard times, makes for salvation.  Many people at some point in their lives are granted a spiritual experience that ought to lead them to God, but they take it as an indication that they are already saved, and do nothing about it.  Their faith, such as it is, falls away swiftly when they are faced with a stark choice of following it or not.  This may not even come about as a result of persecution but in some occasion in their daily lives.

“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.”  While this may seem to apply only to those who are already rich, it applies to us all.  A person may not strive for millions but only thousands or even less and still lose his soul over it.  It should be noted that the word translated here as “lure” actually means “deceit”, as in “the deceit of riches”, which cannot buy heaven or even lasting happiness in this world. “Worldly anxiety” is literally translated as “the anxiety of the age”.  This is something greater than concerns over what we are to wear or to eat, but means existential disturbance: the meaning of life and of existence, and the fear that there is none.  A mind which twists itself in knots over these considerations has no place for the word of God.  It would rather suffer than have peace.  Pride is at the root of this.  The only “fruit” a soul thus afflicted can bear is bitter.

“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 thirtyfold.”  The soil is rich because it is receptive to that which is good for it.  This distinguishes it from the thorny soil.  It receives the seed and considers it, and accepting it bears an abundance of fruit.  That is, the one who gives the Lord the throne of his heart to recline in is himself transformed by his presence.  It affects others as well, just as a house at night without lights has no affect on another person or is even depressing, but a house whose windows are bright with the interior light is comforting and gladdening.  The fruit here is the conversion of others.  The person filled with the grace of God may have no knowledge of his or her influence on others or their role in the conversion of others, but it happens through the faithful believer nonetheless.  And this is also the result of the believer’s prayers for the conversion of the world.

We celebrate today the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene, once afflicted with seven demons but after being freed from them by the Lord Jesus, a brave and steadfast follower of his.  She knew the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary as they followed the Lord wherever he went, even standing with her under his Cross on Golgotha.  She was the first, after the Virgin, to see the Lord after his Resurrection, and was sent by the Lord to tell the Apostles that he had risen.  She was one who gladly received the seed of the word of the Kingdom of heaven and lived it as thoroughly as she could.  The example of her conversion and her prayers have helped countless others to draw near the Lord, and will help us as well.