I’d like to begin today’s reflection with a reading from the Gospel According to Matthew. It’s a most interesting passage in which Jesus related the Parable of the Sower and then explained its meaning to the apostles. It’s a passage that usually leads to a number of questions. As you read it, keep track of the questions that come to mind, open your heart and mind to the Holy Spirit, and pray the He will lead you to the answers you seek.
Please take a moment now to open your Bible to Chapter 13 of the Gospel According to Matthew and read verses 1 to 23 [Mt 13:1-23].
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One evening early last year, I came across a website that asked the question: “Is your church growing?” Apparently, this website sells software and consulting services to Christian churches that either aren’t growing or aren’t growing quickly enough. It promises to help double the numbers of a congregation so the pews will be overflowing with enthusiastic worshipers. And the financial support will grow too, with the possibility of large donations.
Wow! Who could resist this offer at a time when Church attendance in the U.S. and Europe was approaching record lows? Europe, of course, is in far worse shape spiritually than the U.S., but the U.S. isn’t far behind. Many dioceses are closing parishes and have had to face crippling financial burdens (in part because of the abuse scandal). Who wouldn’t welcome a few tips on how to make a parish grow?
From this I was reminded of the Gospel passage I’ve asked you to read. It seems as if the disciples wanted Jesus to speak more clearly, not to hide His teachings in parables the people, and even the disciples, couldn’t decipher. Surely, He’d attract more followers if He’d just speak plainly. I can hear the consultants now:
“Poor Jesus! He just didn’t understand the dynamics of church growth. First of all, He announced the presence of God's kingdom in a world dominated by the rule of Satan. And instead of making a little room for compromise, He just plowed ahead and declared war on Satan. Now, how ecumenical is that?”
Yes, I’m afraid our consultants would be aghast. Doesn’t Jesus know that his stubborn orthodoxy just makes things worse, polarizing people, making them more defensive?
Look what happened. Already the religious leaders of the time were accusing Jesus of being in league with Satan. And those teachings of His, those hard teachings that caused many of His disciples to leave Him: “Eat my Body…drink my Blood” [Jn 6:55-57] – hardly words to fill the parking lot. Even the people of Nazareth, His hometown, turned against him. Things simply weren’t going all that well for Jesus. If only He’d had access to the expert help available to us today.
In our passage Jesus gave His disciples advice on how to spread the Word. He used a parable, relating a story of a farmer who isn’t especially careful about the sowing of seed. He just throws it all over the place. Although some actually falls on fertile soil, most of the seed appears to be wasted. It reminds me of a cartoon I once saw. One farmer asks another 'What are you growing this year?' The other farmer simply said, 'Poorer'. And that’s Jesus, wasting all that seed.
Jesus, though, went on to explain things and we discover that His Way, God’s Way, differs greatly from the ways of man, the ways of the experts. After provoking the disciples with His parable of the reckless farmer, Jesus went on to explain His own proclamation of the Good News. Since He began His public ministry, He’d been generous in all things: teaching, healing, and reaching out to all who came to Him, and even many who didn’t. Through it all He displayed a special love for public sinners and society’s misfits, not the sort who give large contributions.
Through these actions, as much as His preaching, Jesus taught. Thousands came to Him and, listening to His teaching, realized how much He demanded of them. Their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, the religious professionals of the day. He called for more than simple obedience to the law. He called for a change of heart and mind in his hearers. He called on them to change their lives!
But then He repeated the words of Isaiah, proclaiming the prophecy is fulfilled:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see [Is 6:14].
Sure enough, many resisted because their hearts were as hard as the rocky ground on which so much of that seed fell, or as tangled and suffocating as the briars that choked God’s Word before it could grow. Quite simply, in their sinfulness and self-absorption they neither heard nor understood the Good News.
They refused to accept God’s gift of faith and make a free response to Jesus' call. Only an act of faith can open their hearts and free them from Satan's grasp. Without it, they are no different from so many of today’s Christians who seem to welcome the Gospel but then crumble once they are tested. Only this understanding, this act of faith, can free us from the allure of the gross materialism of our decaying society.
Jesus knew His people's history, so He wasn’t surprised by their lack of faith. The prophets had encountered the same lack of faith, the same hardening of hearts, when they spread the seed of God’s word. And, yet, despite all these obstacles, all the resistance to the life-giving Gospel, Jesus reminds us that God is not defeated.
You see, like the farmer, God is a bit of a gambler. When someone bets everything they have, with no guaranteed outcome, they’re gambling big time. It’s an old story. The higher the stakes, the harder they work. Not just to control the weeds, but to control every single variable they can.
They strive to control the risks. Just consider the extreme and improbable risks that God takes by planting his Word in a world like ours. What are the chances the Word of God will take root and yield a good harvest?
Will God’s Word change the heart of a terrorist? Will it bring the spirit of forgiveness to the family of a murder victim? Can the truth of God’s gift of life soften the heart of a politician? Will God’s love for the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten lead the wealthy to the beatitude of spiritual poverty? Will the hardships, the struggles of employees and customers play on the mind of a CFO as he adjusts his spreadsheet parameters? Will the scientist realize she’s bowing in reverence to the Creator of the universe when she leans over the microscope to study the wonders of cellular regeneration?
What are the chances? You and I might think the chances of the Word of God germinating in our fallen world are mighty slim. But, as it turns out, God is a gambler of the most reckless sort. Just listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah, poetic words through which he reveals God’s plan:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways,
my thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Yet, just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
any word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it [Is 55:9-11].
The Word of God, then, runs swiftly upon the earth and doesn’t return to the heavens void. What a marvelous prophecy Isaiah has given us. For Jesus Himself is the Word of God and His time on earth was certainly brief, indeed, a swift run. But He did not return to heaven empty, for He had established His Church, “giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.” And His Church “shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”
The Church Jesus founded gave us the canon of Sacred Scripture and its magisterial teachings on everything from prayer to living the Christian life. Whenever you and I open the Bible, or fall to our knees in prayer, or gather together at Mass, God scatters more seed and takes more risks. Day after day, in the face of incredible odds, God hurls out the seed of the Word like a gambler throwing dice.
It appears reckless, but faith takes root. Isaiah was confident in his conviction; and Jesus claimed it was a sure thing: God’s Word yields its harvest. In arid hearts that thirst for God, the understanding, the seeds of faith, all take root. His kingdom will come, Jesus promises us, a coming conditioned by both refusal and the generous response of open hearts.
What about your heart?
Is it open, like “the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed
bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirty fold”? [Mt 13:8] What a
return on investment! How’s that for a reckless, over-the-top response? Is such
a response to His Word really possible? Well, as Jesus reminds us: “…for God
all things are possible”[Mt 19:26].
And especially today, in the face of so much disappointment, of low morale among many Christians, and of the hatred that arises out of a culture of death, it’s particularly important to accept that abundant harvests will come.
Just as the Church grew from Jesus’ own faith – His willingness to face the desolation of the cross, to die as the grain of wheat dies – and the glory of the Resurrection. Just as the Holy Spirit worked in the generous hearts of apostles and, despite the persecutions they endured, spread the faith from Jerusalem to Rome and beyond.
This was all God’s doing. His Kingdom doesn’t grow bigger and better by following some human organizational model. No consultant can bring about the Kingdom. No, it will come in its fullness only as a work of God – aided by the faith of the members of the Body of Christ.
This faith leads us to hope, and to pray and work for a generous response to Jesus' call to discipleship. Faith also tells us that growth comes not just when the church is prosperous and triumphant, but more often when she is weak and persecuted. For it is then, in our weakness, that we allow the power of God's Word to enter our hearts. It is then that we see His power and come to believe that He alone can produce the rich harvest.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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