In his parables, Jesus often uses incongruous images or anecdotes, which would have made people in the culture of his time do a double take. The purpose of this technique is twofold. One is to engage the audience all the more by making them think through the incongruities. The other is to illustrate certain points more clearly through exaggeration. For us today, removed as we are from the culture in which Jesus lived, the rhetorical technique is harder to follow. We have to make an effort to enter into the culture of the time.
For example, the parable of the lost sheep would have been very startling in the culture of Jesus. In the story, the shepherd leaves the ninety-nine sheep to chase after the one sheep that was lost. Such an act would have been incredibly reckless for a shepherd whose entire livelihood depended on safeguarding the flock. He could not have risked losing all the other sheep in order to save the one. He would have had to cut his loses and protect what he still had.
The original audience of Jesus would have found the parable shocking. But that was precisely the point. From a human perspective, the shepherd's behavior is unthinkable. But the parable shows that God's love for us is so great that we can only demonstrate it fully with a story that goes beyond human logic.
The parable in today's Gospel reading is similar. In this scene, we have a sower who is scattering seed as he sows, some of which falls on the path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns, and only some in good soil. In the subsistence farming economy that characterized the lives of most people at the time of Jesus, such an approach to sowing seeds would have been unthinkable.
Most farming communities were one crop failure away from starvation. They had to make sure that all the seed set aside for planting was sown in the most advantageous way possible. After the harvest, they had to set aside at least as much seed as they had sown in order to be able to plant again the next year. Any surplus they were able to grow would then be used for eating and for bartering or selling. If unseasonable weather or a fire destroyed the crops, the community would not only be bereft of what they needed for that year, but also of the means to plant again the following year. The families might have to mortgage or sell their land just to survive.
Though today's social media influencers might romanticize farming life, the life of farming communities was hard and harsh, always on the edge of ruin. In such an environment, no sower would have been scattering seed in such a way that even a small portion of it would land on rocky ground or among thorns or on the path. Each seed would have been planted very carefully. The parable, as several others in the Gospels, paints an incongruous image. Christ uses this image to drive home a fundamentally important point: God's love for us is without measure, transcending our understanding. His love is so great for us that he pours his love out into our lives regardless of how we will respond. He keeps pouring his love even into the life of the most hard-hearted person. A modern day image might be that of an investor who pours money into everything, even into hopeless things. God keeps loving. God keeps showering his love upon us. God keeps inviting us to accept his offer of infinite, eternal love, peace, and joy.
He has also given us free-will to respond to his invitation of love. He has done so because without free-will love is meaningless. God will not force us to accept his love. He will keep inviting, but the choice is ours. Of course, there is only one right choice to make, because only God's love can fulfill us existentially.
Furthermore, accepting God's love is not a single choice, but something we must do daily as we live out our spiritual lives. We start by making a fundamental commitment to God, which then needs to steer our thoughts and actions from day to day. We might say that the spiritual journey is similar to eating healthy or saving money. We can make a fundamental choice to start eating healthy or to build up savings, but then we have to put our plan into practice every day, even every hour, through the decisions we make.
After we choose to accept the love of God, we live out our new life by immersing ourselves into the sacramental and prayer life of the Church, following all that the Church offers us for our state of life. In this sense, the spiritual life is a slow and painstaking process, involving myriads of daily choices. There are no quick fixes or flashy solutions. Our good choices in each moment will, in time, create habits, which we are then to continue to live out for the rest of our lives. Just like there are no quick fixes for eating healthy or saving money, our spiritual journey is a slow and steady process.
Of course, we should bear in mind that no progress is possible without God's grace. In the First Reading we see the efficacy of God's grace: "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; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it." (Isaiah 55:10-11) The more we accept God's grace, the more we invite God's love into our lives, the more we will be transformed and made whole.
As we live out our spiritual journey, one danger we must avoid is seeking to substitute the slow and steady process for sensational experiences. There is a danger of being distracted by prophecies of cataclysmic global events, by end times speculations, by alien life theories, and the like. If sweeping, overwhelming events happen, we can deal with them when they come. But we should not lose our peace and focus because of them. We should not be derailed from our slow and steady progress by them.
Having said that, our faith does expect a great, fundamental transformation to take place in the universe, which the Second Reading for today is pointing toward. At his Second Coming, Christ will refashion creation, restoring our fallen world. He will make a New Heaven and New Earth, where there will be no more death, suffering, and pain. We do not know when these events will transpire. But we can look forward to the new life and new world that Christ has planned for us. Let us be ready at all times for Christ's return, without losing sight of the day to day tasks and practices of cultivating our spiritual journey.
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The readings for Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A are:
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Image Credit: Irrigated Wheat field, from Wikimedia Commons.
