Homily for Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The context of today's parable is important: Jesus was preaching by the lake of Galilee, his home district. While it was his home district, it was also the scene of his most vigorous opposition. The numbers following him had dwindled drastically. Morale among the remainder was low. This parable is intended to put new heart into the small band of disciples who still remained faithful to him. The parable explains how and why he lost so many disciples. A variety of reasons lay behind the disaffections. Some of those who fell away had barely been touched by the word of God in the first place; others had only a superficial understanding of it. As soon as any bit of opposition presented itself, they fell away. The cares and troubles of the world claimed others. But the main point of the parable is that, despite the losses, the harvest was still abundant. The seed, the Word of God, produced abundant fruit, a hundred fold, sixty fold, thirty fold.
That then is the immediate background to the Parable of the Sower. But, like all the parables, its significance extends far beyond its original context. Each one of us can extract our own meaning from it. Only I will be familiar with the forces that are hostile to the gospel in my own personal life. But the parable has a more social or communal application too. For example, if the gospel is to have any impact on a family, the ground must first be prepared. Unless selflessness, idealism and values such as justice are encouraged, the gospel will fall on barren ground.
Incidentally, we should attend to the other side of this coin while we are at it: the cultivation of such values in the family is no guarantee that the the teachings of Christ will find automatic acceptance among the offspring. We all know families in which the parents conscientiously cultivated Christian values through word and example. Despite this, the children reject the faith at the first given opportunity, or at least fail to practice it, which is not the same thing of course. The rejection of the faith by the children is not a judgement on the Christian competence of the parents. On the other hand, church attendance does not necessarily mean that the faith is being practiced faithfully.Some of the finest christians I have me would not be regareded as pillars of Christ's Church. Conversely, some of those who would purport to be Christians, fall at the first objectice test.
All that any of us can do is to demonstrate by the way we lead our lives that the gospel means something to us, that we treasure and value it. This is the only credible way in which the word of God can be sown. If it fails to take root, well we can only leave that to God. But we are guaranteed that the harvest will be abundant in any case. That conviction or assurance should be enough to keep us going.