“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Of the forty parables of Jesus, only two are directly explained by Jesus Himself, and the Sower and the Seed is one of them. It is given with the meaning of the story. Therefore, who can render a better explanation than Jesus?
At the end of this parable, Jesus says: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Most likely, we have heard this Gospel several times at Mass or in Bible Study classes. But did we really listen and hear what Jesus was saying when He directly explains the lesson of the parable? Have you ever applied it to yourself, asking yourself, which soil you are?
My youngest sister worked at a garden nursery. One day we went to purchase some soil as we were going to plant new flowers around our convent. I asked her how much the bag of dirt was, and she immediately corrected me and said it was not ‘dirt,’ it was “soil.” There is a difference. Soil contains dirt but dirt by itself does not have soil components. Dirt has clay, sand, and silt, whereas soil has dirt and is filled with organic matter, which gives life to the plant or flower.
It is said that a person’s reception of God’s Word is determined by the condition of one’s heart and soul. That is how you understand God’s word. The parable of the Sower may help us determine what condition our souls and hearts are in at this point in our lives: a trodden footpath, rocky soil, one with thorns, or good soil.
He/she who has ears, let him/her hear!
Sister Celeste Hupert, CSFN
