THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER

Mt13:36-43

Joke: This Gospel was read and one old man stood up and said to the Priest: "Excuse me Father, but I don't have any teeth". the Priest said in reply: "Don't worry, teeth will be provided".
The presence of evil has always been in the world. In the first reading we hear Jeremiah turning to God, questioning why so much evil has come upon His chosen people. In explaining to his disciples the parable of the weeds among the wheat, Jesus too describes the problem of evil. He goes on saying that the Son of Man sows good seed in the field of the world which produces the children of the Kingdom. The devil sows bad seeds, which in turn, produces evildoers. At the end of time, angels will remove from the kingdom all evildoers and the righteous will shine in the kingdom of our Father.

Jesus responds to the request of his disciples taking again each one of the elements of the parable and giving it significance: the field is the world; the good seed are the members of the Kingdom; the weeds are the members of the adversary (the evil one); the enemy is the devil; the harvest is the end of time, the reapers are the angels. With the information given by Jesus, we understand better the application of the parable.

This parable teaches us three things:

1) There is always a hostile power in the world, seeking and waiting to destroy the good seed.  We must be forever on our guard. There are two cultures we are confronted with in life. One is the culture of death that promotes the anti-life mentality of violence, contraceptives, abortion, divorce, and the other is the culture of life that promotes peace, justice and solidarity. It is a choice between life and death.

2) There is a purpose in allowing evil and good to co-exist in the same environment. All of us are given the freewill to choose good over evil throughout the span of our lifetime. In making these choices we either move closer to God or deliberately turn away. But God is always patient, giving us time to repent.

3) This parable teaches us also that we should not judge others. God is the only right judge. We are called to treat every person as a child of God, with a eternal destiny. Our words and action should bring healing and light instead of hurt. It is very easy to be critical. Only God can help us to look beyond people’s mistakes and to see others as children of God.

In each and every one of us, God has planted the seed or the potential to do good. However, there is also an evil seed in us, one that gives us the potential for sin as well. We must be ever vigilant, or else the evil seed in us will root and corrupt us. We must be careful of our choices in life. We must always strive to make the right choices, so that in the end we will reap what we have sown. And by choosing the good, God will reward us and allow us to shine. A question for us: In the field of my life, what thing prevails: The weeds or the good seed?

As Charles Reade, an English novelist and dramatist once said: "We sow a thought and reap an act We sow an act and reap a habit We sow a habit and reap a character
We sow a character and reap a destiny."