Today, we read of the Matthean version of the Parable of the Sower. Indeed, we owe the title 'parable of the Sower' to Matthew. It is the gospel of Matthew that gives this parable a title (Matthew 13:18). This parable is significant because it is the first ever parable related in the gospels and what is more, Jesus explains it. Therefore, this parable is the key to the understanding of all other parables.
Fr. Patrick Sun celebrated the 11 a.m. Mass this morning and he delivered a very substantial homily on this parable. He asked us to reflect on how the seed, the word of God, bears fruit in us. Before he began his homily, he invited members in the congregation to share their experience of how the word of God bore fruit in them. A lady extraordinary minister of the Holy Communion generously shared her experience. She humbly admitted that she had not even finished primary education. Therefore, she feared that she would not be doing her job well to bring the Viaticum to the sick and to meditate the Word of God with them. Therefore, she earnestly prayed to Jesus to help her do her duty well. Throughout the years, she felt herself nourished, not just by the Holy Communion but also by the warmth of the Word of God. How admirable. Our faith in God is not measured by the number of converts we bring into the Church. Rather, it is the quality of the relation that counts. It is too easy, too tempting to interpret the hundredfold, sixty-fold and thirty-fold (Matthew 13:8) in a quantitative manner.
Fr. Patrick took a different approach. He led us to ponder on our family life and the practice of child-rearing. It is an image that vividly brings into relief the whole point of bearing fruit. Once again, it is the quality, not quantity that counts. The relationship between the spouses must be self-giving rather that self-gratifying in order to lead a fruitful and satisfying life. Similarly, disciplining our children early in their life is not imposing our values on them. Our children need to learn the dangers of instantaneous gratifications in order to survive in the society in the future. In order to learn, we need to be trained to delay the gratification of our needs. Our achievements in the future will be a hundredfold more than those who seek immediate gratification. Fr. Patrick half-jokingly suggested that husbands and wives tended to pick up what they wanted to hear in his sermons. Husbands remembered mostly that the priests told their wives to obey them while wives their husbands to please them. Rather, husbands and wives should remember the duties Christ told them to perform towards their spouses and their family.
I hope you will bear with me my obsession with biblical languages. To keep a record of the use of the Septuagint, I will copy the LXX Isaiah text which Matthew quotes in explaining the purpose of using parables. Unlike Paul who sometimes translated from Hebrew and sometimes paraphrased the Septuagint text to press his points, Matthew simply lifted the whole chunk of text faithfully from Septuagint. He must have been rich enough to own a copy of Septuagint!
And he said, "Go, and say to this people: Hear and hear, but do not understand; see and see, but do not perceive.
Make the heart of this people fat, and their ears heavy, and shut their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."καὶ εἶπεν Πορεύθητι καὶ εἰπὸν τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ Ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε, ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου, καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν αὐτῶν βαρέως ἤκουσαν καὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν, μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσιν καὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσιν καὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς. (Is 6:9-10)
With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.'καὶ ἀναπληροῦται αὐτοῖς ἡ προφητεία Ἠσαΐου ἡ λέγουσα· ἀκοῇ ἀκούσετε καὶ οὐ μὴ συνῆτε,καὶ βλέποντες βλέψετε καὶ οὐ μὴ ἴδητε. ἐπαχύνθη γὰρ ἡ καρδία τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου,καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν βαρέως ἤκουσανκαὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς αὐτῶν ἐκάμμυσαν, μήποτε ἴδωσιν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς καὶ τοῖς ὠσὶν ἀκούσωσινκαὶ τῇ καρδίᾳ συνῶσινκαὶ ἐπιστρέψωσιν καὶ ἰάσομαι αὐτούς. (Matthew 13:14-15)
For those who are interested in the comparison of the ways the Synoptic gospels present the same story, here is a quiz. While Matthew counts down from 100 to 60 to 30 (Matthew 13:8), Mark counts up from 30 to 60 to 100 (Mark 4:8) and Luke simply says a hundredfold (Luke 8:8). Why the difference? Who is more faithful to the words of Jesus? Any suggestion?
My dear Advocate, I am not a piece of good soil. There are too many desires choking Your truth in my heart. Probably, I need to live with them for the rest of my life. May Your seed grow strong enough to withstand their predatory attacks. Lord, You have assigned me a teaching duty. I pray that I am able to raise and sustain my students' interest in Your words of wisdom. Amen.
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