Fr Oliver Treanor looks at the the parable of the sower and the seed as an image of how the kingdom of God grows and comes to fruit in each one of us.
As a communicator Jesus was a born natural. When he wanted to put a message across, you got it. People could not help listening to him. He had such a way with words. And no wonder – he was the Word made flesh. God’s message in human form, standing there before their very eyes.
You could no more ignore his speech then you could ignore his manhood. Everything he said showed the depth of his humanity, his utter trustworthiness. It was easy to believe in his word because he was true to everything he preached. So true in fact, they could see that the message was the man, that the man and his message were one.
Reflections of the kingdom
One way Jesus had of presenting the truth was through parables. Short stories that showed you something important in a way that made you think. Sometimes they were no more than comparisons, likening one thing to another, so that in a flash you saw everything differently. They were so well done, these parables, we are still thinking of them today, 2,000 years later.
What makes Jesus’ stories and comparisons so profound is that they deal in simple language with an idea that is difficult to grasp the Kingdom of God. What exactly is the Kingdom? Where is it? How would you recognize it? Every day we pray for its coming, ‘Thy Kingdom come!’ It is central to our faith, to our salvation; our happiness depends on it in this life and the next; yet we cannot define it. How are we to know it when it comes if we cannot even say what it is?
No problem. The parables show us where to look. They help us identify it in our midst, and welcome it.
Silent growth
Jesus’ very first words in the gospel were, ‘Repent and believe the good news, for the Kingdom of God is at hand’ (Mark 1 :15), and in his first set of parables he showed how these two ideas were linked – conversion and the Kingdom. Those who turn away from sin and back to God have the Kingdom of heaven inside them already. This is not just good news – it is wonderful news! That salvation can be as simple as that!
No sweat, no fuss. Go is always ready to start again with us, no matter what!
Maybe we are no saints,even after our first step back to him. But holines is nonetheless growing and forming roots when we do. Like little seeds. This is what the parables in Mark, (Chapter 4), are about. Growth.
Look at the examples he uses. A sower going out to scatter seed on the ground. A farmer watching his crop spring up. How one particular kind of seed – the mustard – though the tiniest there is, becomes the biggest shrub of all. To St Mark’s list, Matthew’s Gospel adds still another: the flourishing wheat field where the weeds grow too (Chapter 13).
Slow growth
All these direct our attention to the way God works in our lives. Silently. Mysteriously. Little by little his will takes hold in our will when we make a decision to be open to him.
It doesn’t happen overnight. Sometimes the weeds spring up in us as well. Don’t worry about that, says Jesus’ parable, these will be rooted out when the time comes. When the harvest season arrives the crop will be ready. But in the meanwhile, the growth of the seed, the rising of the shoot, and the appearing of the grain are a marvel to behold, a veritable wonder.
And so it is with people. God knows it takes time for conversion of heart to take place. He can afford to be patient like the farmer until the season of fruit. Then he will gather into his barns what he himself has planted and tended in us. With this in mind, there is no room for despair over ourselves or others when we think how long we take to mature. Conversion of mind and will is an ongoing process. It is something that continues day after day through the cycle of our lives.
Obstacles to growth
The only problem to watch out or is bad soil. Look at the parable of the sower again. Some of his seed fell on thin clay, some on tacky ground, or among thorns, and failed to grow.
What are these obstacles to the harvest?
Indifference to temptation – not caring enough to care. That’s the first.
The second is allowing ourselves to give up trying when we don’t feel like going on.
And the third is giving in to worry instead of trusting God to see us through our daily needs like money and employment and the things that money and work can buy.
To put anything in God’s place, before his will, and to fail to acknowledge this by saying sorry and meaning it, is to choke the seed or parch it before it has time to get itself established.
But that’s not us. You and I are trying to nourish God’s word, Jesus’ message. When his seed becomes wheat, when his wheat becomes bread, we will become Eucharist for him as he became Bread for us. And when this happens we will certainly know what the Kingdom is, because we will know joy, peace of mind, and the security that comes from knowing the Spirit of Jesus himself.
This article first appeared in The Messenger (September 2004), a publication of the Irish Jesuits.
