HEAR THEN THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Jer 3,14-17; C Jer 31,10-13; Mt 13,18-23
27 JULY
When the Lord created man on earth, he also told him to live as a man. He is in the image and likeness of his God and his life is from his will. There is no determinism of man. Instead there is a life that must be lived with wisdom and intelligence to welcome the good and reject evil. Good and evil that are not defined by man, but indicated with unequivocal words by his Lord, Creator and God. If man is deprived of this responsibility, he is no longer a man. Today society is all committed to building non-men. Many theologians are by now also engineers specialized in the design and construction of the non-man. He is a non-man who deprives himself of his responsibility. He is the builder of non-men who cancels their responsibility.

The Lord from the earth created man, and in his own image he made him. Limited days of life he gives him and makes him return to earth again. He endows man with a strength of his own, and with power over all things else on earth. He puts the fear of him in all flesh, and gives him rule over beasts and birds. He forms men’s tongues and eyes and ears, and imparts to them an understanding heart. With wisdom and knowledge he fills them; good and evil he shows them. He looks with favour upon their hearts, and shows them his glorious works, That they may describe the wonders of his deeds and praise his holy name. He has set before them knowledge, a law of life as their inheritance; An everlasting covenant he has made with them, his commandments he has revealed to them. His majestic glory their eyes beheld, his glorious voice their ears heard. He says to them, “Avoid all evil”; each of them he gives precepts about his fellow men. Their ways are ever known to him, they cannot be hidden from his eyes. Over every nation he places a ruler, but the Lord’s own portion is Israel. All their actions are clear as the sun to him, his eyes are ever upon their ways. Their wickedness cannot be hidden from him; all of their sins are before the Lord. A man’s goodness God cherishes like a signet ring, a man’s virtue, like the apple of his eye. Later he will rise up and repay them, and requite each one of them as they deserve. But to the penitent he provides a way back, he encourages those who are losing hope! Return to the Lord and give up sin, pray to him and make your offenses few. Turn again to the Most High and away from sin, hate intensely what he loathes; Who in the nether world can glorify the Most High in place of the living who offer their praise? No more can the dead give praise than those who have never lived; they glorify the Lord who are alive and well. How great the mercy of the Lord, his forgiveness of those who return to him! The like cannot be found in men, for not immortal is any son of man. Is anything brighter than the sun? Yet it can be eclipsed. How obscure then the thoughts of flesh and blood! God watches over the hosts of highest heaven, while all men are dust and ashes (Cfr. Sir 17,1-32).

The sower spreads his seed in every heart. It is the man’s responsibility to welcome it and make it bear fruit. Whoever does not give the seed is responsible. Whoever does not lead it to fructification is responsible. Today it is this truth of man that has been annulled and cancelled.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away. The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Today nothing is more urgent to the man than a healthy, true and correct anthropology. An impossible thing if he lacks in a healthy, true and correct Christology, theology and eschatology. Man is a man because he is responsible for his life and his eternal death.

Most pure Mother, Angels and Saints, help us to welcome the Word with a pure heart.