15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Isaiah 55:10-11
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
July 13, 2014
Jesus drew large crowds whenever he arrived in a town. Why? People must have known about him. The only way they could have known about Jesus is because people were talking about him. God did not send an email blast to everyone in a town to announce Jesus’ was speaking. News about Jesus spread by word of mouth.
Now we don’t what people were saying about Jesus to others. One would think they must have been telling people about the miracles Jesus did. After all, people came to Jesus looking for miracles. Hopefully people also talked about what Jesus said.
Now these people were just meeting Jesus themselves so they may not have known much about him. That’s ok. The first step in sharing the faith is not a theological discourse. It must begin with simply talking about our experience of Jesus. This is the seed of faith that we can all share.
Today we hear Jesus tell the story of the Parable of the Sower. Often when we hear this parable discussion focuses on which category of seed do we fall into? Are we like the seed and the rocky ground, hearing about our faith but not doing with it or do we bear fruit in our faith thirty or sixty or a hundred fold?
Today I would like to look at this parable from a different angle. How might we be like the sower?
Ask yourself what you can do to spread the seeds of faith.
Often we might what to say evangelization is a job for others but I would say that almost everyone here has at least one way that you must be a sower of seeds of faith.
It’s called parenthood.
Every parent is called to instruct their child in faith. It begins in having the child baptized but the parents duty is not done there. Children need to be in church (Jesus says let the little ones come to me). Sometimes there are people who say little children don’t belong in church until they know how to behave. I say the only way they will learn how to behave in church is to be in church.
The parents’ responsibility does not end in just bringing the child to church. Pray with them at home too. Teach them what you know, show them faith is important. When they reach school age, bring them to religion classes or our parish school.
So, again, parents are to be sowers of faith with their children but parents are not the only ones to sow faith. We must all help sow faith.
We live in a world of thorns. It isn’t easy to hear and to truly listen about faith in Jesus. There are lots of distractions and temptations. Some people are not interested. We cannot and should not force faith on them. It is their choice and we are not responsible for their choice.
But we are responsible for our own actions. If we do our best to learn about our faith for ourselves and do our best to share our faith, then God will not hold us responsible for the choices that others make. However, if we do nothing to share our faith with others, then God will judge us accordingly.
Faith is not a gift to be hidden under a bushel basket. It is a gift to be shared with all. Go and sow seeds of faith.