Good Soil for God’s Word and Covenant, Third Wednesday in Ordinary Time (I), January 27, 2021

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Visitation Mission of the Sisters of Life, Manhattan
Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time, Year I
Memorial of St. Angela Merici
January 27, 2021
Heb 10:11-18, Ps 110, Mk 4:1-20

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following points were attempted in the homily: 

• Three days ago the Church celebrated Sunday of the Word of God. Today Jesus gives us one of his most important parables about how we are to receive the gift of that word and what to expect when we seek to share that word with others. He calls the word a seed, he describes how he, and later his followers, sow that word, and then he talks about four different types of response to it in four different types of soil. Today is an opportunity for us to take a soil sample of our receptivity to God’s word in our life and more broadly our openness to God’s action.
• Jesus uses not just this parable but every parable to bring into the light the receptivity of those who hear him. When he was asked by those with the apostles why he spoke in parables, he said, quoting the Prophet Isaiah, “The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that ‘they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.’” Jesus uses parables because it exposes whether those listening are hungry to grow in truth. The parables require some work to understand them and especially to understand their application by analogy to the things of the life of faith. There are some — we could say, some with the first three types of soil Jesus will say later in the Parable — who won’t really put in the work to grasp them. They’ll look and see but not perceive, hear and listen but not understand precisely because they don’t think they really need the truth of the parable at all or enough to justify the effort. They don’t really think they need conversion, need saving, and need that word. It’s only those with good soil, who hunger for the truth, who will put in the effort to decipher the meaning of the parable and live by it. They’re the ones who will struggle, together with God’s grace, to hear and listen in order to understand, to see and perceive.
• To understand the meaning of the parable, we first need to grasp how farming was done in Jesus’ day. Farm plots were long and thin and there were paths between them on which the farmers and all pedestrians would walk. Sowers would just scatter seed everywhere and it would land in various places. Then the farmers would go and try to turn over the soil — rather than turning over the soil and then planting, as we do today.
• Jesus describes four types of earth that the seed of his Word and work falls upon. The first is soil along the path. Over time, the dirt would be packed down, the seed couldn’t penetrate it, and the birds would come and eat the seeds that had fallen upon it. This refers to those with stubborn soil, who are not receptive to God’s word, either because they’re inveterate sinners or because they think they already know what they need to know. Jesus says, “As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them.”
• The second type of soil is “rocky ground,” where there is “little soil.” These refer to those who are superficial. In the Holy Land, many areas have a thick layer of limestone a few inches beneath the surface. It keeps most the water within those three inches and so at first a seed will sprout up immediately, but because of the limestone, the roots can’t go very deep and when the not Middle Eastern sun arises, it desiccates the soil quickly and scorches and withers the new plant. Jesus says these are the ones who “when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no roots; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” We find this soil in those who listen to the Word looking to “learn something” or to “be entertained” or to “like” it, rather than to have their life changed by it. These are the ones who will discard it as soon as the going gets tough because they were receiving it mainly for their pleasure rather than as a life-saving rescue. These are the ones who won’t do the work to drill down through the layers of limestone so that the roots of faith will be solid and will remain even in the midst of storms.
• The third type of soil is “thorny,” in which the thorns choke the growth of the seed such that it produces no grain. This soil is otherwise good, but there are other things growing in it that not only consume the nutrients but choke the growth of the good seed so that no fruit comes. Jesus describes that those with this type of soil “hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit.” Notice that thorns are not described as sins, which obviously can be poison for the growth of the seed of God’s word, but rather “anxiety,” “lure of riches” and “craving for other things.” If we’re preoccupied with something, or drawn to some god or pleasure of our own making more than we are to God, then obviously God’s seed won’t grow, even if the soil would be able to be fruitful. If we’re worried about a loved one’s health, or if we are really thinking about breakfast, we’re going to be distracted from receiving and responding to the word of God.
• The final type of soil is what Jesus hopes and wants each of us to have: It’s “rich” or “good soil,” and Jesus says that those with it feature three things. First, they “hear the word.” They’re listening in order to understand and to obey, not just giving idle ears. Second, they “accept it.” They’re actively seeking to welcome it, to say “fiat” to it, to put it into practice. And third, they “bear fruit” from it. And Jesus doesn’t say they just bear “some fruit” or a “little fruit” but massive fruit: 30, 60 or 100-fold. If we have rich soil, the seed God implants will bear a cornucopia. It will change our lives 30, 60 or 100 ways, not necessarily all at the beginning, but it will continue to bear fruit just like a good plant or tree does. Those with good soil are the ones who drill down below the surface; they constantly seek to put their heart in God and in his providence rather than let preoccupations rob them of their faith or riches or other things take the place of God. They are the ones who listen differently, who see differently, who hunger, who starve to receive God’s word as the light of their life. Jesus wants us all to have this type of receptivity and response to all that he seeks to do in us.
• Today in the first reading we see clearly one of the most important seeds God seeks to implant within us. Loosely quoting the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the Letter to the Hebrews says, “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds.’” The Lord wants to implant his “law” into the soil of our hearts, and that law is not one that is written on stone tablets. Rather it is the “new law” who is the Holy Spirit. God wants to implant himself within us. That’s the seed. And he wants us to accept that gift, to listen to the Lawgiver within, for if we do, he will make us abundantly fruitful. In a particular way, he wants to implant his mercy in us. The Letter to the Hebrews is all about the work of Jesus, the Eternal High Priest, in redeeming us. He seeks to implant himself in us — body, blood, soul and divinity — and his self-giving sacrifice, his blood, was offered for the forgiveness of sins. He writes his law of mercy within us as he implants himself as message and messenger. What is our response to this gift? Are we hardened and stubborn toward it? Do we respond superficially to his call to continuous conversion? Are we distracted by fears or worldly lures? Or are we hearing, accepting and bearing fruit from that gift in acts of mercy that touch 30, 60 or 100 or more others?
• Someone who had good soil, who sowed the word of God with her life and who worked to prepare the soil to so many was St. Angela Merici (1470-1540), the foundress of the Company of St. Ursula, which was the first teaching order of women in the history of the Church. Angela was orphaned at 15 and when her younger sister died a few years later without the sacraments, she began to look around to see how many girls, both orphans and those growing up in poor families, who were receiving no education and Christian formation. The only instruction for girls at the time happened in rich families by tutors or happened in convents. The vast majority of young women received no educational formation at all, not to mention no formal instruction in the faith. Their soil had never been tilled and was wild. St. Angela opened up her family home into a primitive school to try to teach the girls of her city, others joined her, and it eventually became a model that was approved by the Church and blessed by God with many vocations. Over the course of the five centuries since, the Ursulines have formed millions of Catholic kids and spawned many other orders of teaching sisters. In the Collect (opening prayer) of the Mass, we asked God that following St. Angela’s example, “we may hold fast to your teaching and express it in what we do.” That’s another way of asking him for good soil like St. Angela so that we may bear abundant fruit from God’s work in all we do.
• The way we’re able to bear much fruit, Jesus told us during the Last Supper, is by attaching ourselves to him as branches to the Vine. And he comes each Mass to establish the new and eternal Covenant as the law of the Spirit upon our hearts. It’s here in Jesus’ one sacrifice eternally offered to the Father that we find forgiveness of sins. Let us receive this message today with perception, understanding and fruitful soil!

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

Gospel Mk 4:1-20

On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

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