Explication
Every day
Biblical commentaries
Gospel (Mt 13, 1-9)
That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. So many crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down; the whole crowd stood on the shore. He spoke to them many things in parables: “Behold, the sower went out to sow. As he was sowing, some grain fell by the wayside, and the birds came and ate it all. Others fell on the stony ground, where they did not have much soil; they rose immediately, because the earth was shallow. When the sun rose, they burned and, lacking roots, they dried up. Others fell into the brambles; the brambles grew and choked them. Others fell on good soil, and they yielded fruit a hundred, or sixty, or thirty to one. He who has ears, let him hear! »
Other readings: Is 55, 10-11; Ps 64 (65); Rom 8, 18-23
To understand
The parable
In this gospel, Jesus uses a parable to convey the transformative power of God’s word. There is a sort of mise en abyme of the parable itself: while Jesus compares the word of God to the sower, his listeners become the different terrains that he describes, taking them themselves into the story that he tells. Unlike a speech or religious precepts, the parable unfolds a story that uses symbol: the grain is not just a grain, but it refers to the word of God which acts mysteriously in man. The earth is not only the earth, but it refers to our interior life and to all the obstacles that prevent us from accessing the full understanding of the Word: our distractions, our resistance and our lack of perseverance.
Images and signs thus become the privileged mediation of the relationship because, unlike concepts which are immediately revealed, they put the listener in an inner movement. This parable is alive, it takes root in our intelligence, our memory and our heart by making us enter into a deep questioning: do we believe that the word of God carries within it a power of life that we cannot measure?
Meditate
The seed sown grows
By following the thread of the parable, we understand that “he who has” is the one who has his heart open to the mystery of the Kingdom while “he who does not have” is he who keeps his heart closed. Keeping the Word goes through stages: hearing, understanding then embodying. It is a dynamic process: receiving the word of God must put us to work, we cannot just listen to it and then move on or make it take second place in our life.
Because without our active reception, it does not act. Jesus’ story puts everyone to the test of listening. However, it does not remain fixed on the failure of the first three grounds, but ends with the abundance of the last. The parable thus invites us to refocus on the power of Jesus’ word rather than on our obstacles to receiving it!
The fertility of which Jesus speaks at the end of his story is reminiscent of the creative force of the word of God in Genesis, through which he brings every living being into existence. The seed sown, hidden, grows invisibly like the Word which continues its work in our depths without us knowing it. Jesus speaks to us but it is not to inform us or convince us; he makes us, at the very moment, contact with the Gospel in our reality as children of God.
Then, unsuspected fruits awaken. This summer we can grow! Let us be transformed by the word of God; let us plant a seed in our memory with a few verses from the Gospel or psalms that we will repeat in secret wherever we are, night and day. Then the Word, little by little, will inhabit our interior life, direct our view of others and guide our actions.
Pray
Lord, you know the hardened lands of my heart, these places where your Word no longer penetrates because habits, fears and distractions take away what you wanted to give birth to.
Lord, you never get discouraged from continuing to sow in me, even when I feel discouraged, sterile, useless.
Make me a good earth: may your Word not only remain heard but may it descend into the depths of my being to transform my thoughts, my choices, my relationships and my entire life.
