THE IMPENETRABLE SOIL
Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
I wonder how many people put out grass seed this summer that didn’t grow. Did you have that experience? I doubt if your yard is full of rocks or thorn bushes like Jesus mentions in his parable, but the ground in your yard could be too hard, even as hard as the footpath Jesus talks about. And the grass seeds then are unable to sink into the dirt.
The point Jesus was trying to make is that our heads are also sometimes too hard for the word of God to penetrate and take root. Our heads can become too hard from “mental laziness”. We’d rather not think. The Greek philosopher Socrates tried to remedy that situation among the people of Athens by going around and asking them disturbing questions. He was trying to wake up their minds and get them thinking. He managed to irritate some of them and sentenced him to death.
There is also “mental arrogance”. That’s somebody who thinks he knows everything. You’ve met that kind before. So had Jesus! The Pharisees of his day were like that. Then there are those who are afraid to learn anything new. They might upset their daily routine. To talk to the mentally lazy, the mentally arrogant, or the mentally fearful is like talking to a brick wall.
Jesus tries to talk to us every day, he tries to plant spiritual seeds in our minds. Do you suppose he has much luck?
Today I invite you to reflect on the question: Has Jesus’ seed fallen on your path and been trampled on by a day full of activities? Or has his seed fallen on rocky and hard ground that has not been softened by the rain of his love, and the seed has withered away? Or has Jesus’ seed fallen on good ground that was moist and receptive to the seed?
Each day we have the opportunity to receive the seed Jesus gives us for that specific day. He doesn’t give us the same seed every day. He knows what we need for this day. However, we are the ones who need to be attentive, open and receptive to the seed. We can nurture it and help it grow and blossom. Or we can ignore it and then it will never grow, develop and produce fruit. It is our choice! What will we choose today?
