Hear then the parable of the sower

27 JULY (Mt 13,18-23)

Today, Jesus reveals to us the depths of the human heart. The Ancient Scripture has already revealed that the heart is an unfathomable abyss. Nothing is deeper than the mystery of a heart.

Hear my voice, O God, in my complaint; Preserve my life from dread of the enemy. Hide me from the secret counsel of evildoers, From the tumult of those who do iniquity, Who have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They aimed bitter speech as their arrow, To shoot from concealment at the blameless; Suddenly they shoot at him, and do not fear. They hold fast to themselves an evil purpose; They talk of laying snares secretly; They say, “ Who can see them?” They devise injustices, saying, “We are ready with a well-conceived plot”; For the inward thought and the heart of a man are deep. But God will shoot at them with an arrow; Suddenly they will be wounded. So they will make him stumble; Their own tongue is against them; All who see them will shake the head. Then all men will fear, And they will declare the work of God, And will consider what He has done. The righteous man will be glad in the LORD and will take refuge in Him; And all the upright in heart will glory. (Psalm 64 (63) 1-11).

A sower of the Word must know this of God when he announces the Gospel, and proclaims the good news: before him there is always a gap, never might he know the fruits of his preaching. But if the Holy Spirit gives him the reading of the heart, due to a special grace, he will know who stands before him and what great caution he must use so that no harm comes from the gift from to the heart of the Word. The Gospel attests that Jesus knew the malice that there was in the heart of everyone. The Gospel of John confirms this truth: “While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all, and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well” (Jn 2,23-25). But Jesus always knew this unknown gulf to those to whom the Lord did not give the reading of the heart. That is why the preacher of the Gospel must be simple as doves but wise as serpents. The heart of a man is always unpredictable. Never might one fathom it fully. When you think you know it, it is then that it escapes and always surprises you. It is never mastered, never conquered, and never sure. It is surprisingly shifting, changing. Only the Holy Spirit is the one that can stabilized it, creating it new and making it stable more and more every day.

“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.”

The sower goes out to sow. He cannot choose whom to give and not to give the Word. He is obliged to give it to everyone, to all, always. Since he does not know the heart, he does not know what there is in it and even what his reaction of today will be might be that could already be different tomorrow; it is a duty to proclaim the Word, without any prior judgment or worse prejudice. He must announce it in the same way as Jesus Christ: preaching, telling, explaining, narrating, using the parable and allegory, and every other literary genre. His responsibility ends here: in the wise, intelligent, prudent, and shrewd gift of the Word to the hearts. Then, the responsibility of the man to whom the Word was given begins. It is up to him to make bear fruit in the heart, so that it becomes essence, substance, his own body, and his life. By so doing, he will always be immune from the great temptation of the vanity of his work or inadequacy. His mission is not that of gathering fruit; it is, instead that of the daily sowing of the Word of salvation. The gathering of fruit does not belong to him, but to those whom God has established.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, and Saints make us true and wise sowers.