Sunday Reflections

This Sunday’s gospel gives us the familiar parable about the sower and the seed.  Some of the seed fell on the path and the birds ate it up.  Other seeds fell on soil that was not deep enough to grow in, and they were scorched by the sun.  Other seeds fell among the thorns and got choked to death. And finally, some seeds landed on good soil where they flourished. The question Jesus poses is: what kind of soil are we?  In the ideal world, we hope that we are fertile ground for God’s word to grow in and find lived expression.  However, if we are honest with ourselves, on any given day we probably reflect all the different ways that God’s word is heard and listened to. We wish it weren’t so, but we are broken and human.

We are in the process of allowing God to till the soil of our faith, aerating it and enriching it with the fertilizer of the scriptures, sacred reading, prayer, and most especially the Eucharist.  Not that becoming rich soil will happen immediately – it won’t – but slowly and gradually the transformation will begin to take place.  This is the work of the Holy Spirit, but on our part, we need to welcome the Spirit to work within us every day.  As we hear from the first reading from Isaiah this Sunday, this loving work of the Spirit is inexorable and unrelenting like the rain and snow that water the earth.  Let us pray that we will be open to the work of the Spirit. As Jesus tells us: “Let anyone with ears listen!”