The gospel this weekend includes a parable that is very familiar to us. It is most often called “The Parable of the Sower”. The focus, however, is not the sower but the condition of the soil. We are invited to consider what kind of soil are we? How receptive we are to God’s word and how productive are we when we receive it?

Are we a path where the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in our hearts? Are we rocky ground where God’s word has no root, so it lasts only for a time and then withers and dies? Is our life filled with thorns of worldly anxiety and the lure of riches which choke the word and it bears no fruit? Or are we rich soil which bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold?

Let me pose another question to ponder.  What kind of sower are you? It is a law of nature that you reap what you sow.  If you sow sunflower seeds, you get back sunflowers.  If you sow marigold seeds your yield will be marigolds.

Things tend to work that way with human nature as well.  We reap what we sow. If we sow hatred and hostility, we will reap hatred and hostility. Think of your conversations with family and friends. If someone gossips or judges, do you stand idly by? Do you actively or passively participate in the negativity? Or do you courageously speak out to sow love and harmony? When someone bemoans the state of our world, do play the “ain’t it awful game” and wade in the pool of despair and darkness? Or do you point out the goodness around us and sow hope and light? What would the world be like if everyone sowed love and peace?

We are all sowers whether we realize it or not, whether we are young children just learning about life, teenagers with all the answers, young adults struggling to raise a family and earn a living or mature adults.  We move through life sowing seeds, often very casually and without much thought of the impact we have. How we live, what we say and do impacts the world around us, our family, our friends and our nation.

As Baptized Catholics, we are called to be very intentional in sowing seeds of faith, hope and charity. Let us strive to be fertile soil to receive the word of God. Then we can be effective sowers of what we have been given. May our harvest be bountiful.

In Christ,
Dcn. Marty Pogioli