The Sower

Today’s gospel describes the struggles of sowing, living, growing. All of us struggle, and we struggle in three ways: we struggle to maintain ourselves, (be on the good ground), struggle to grow (get out of the thorns), and struggle to keep depression and death at bay (fall upon the rock). Because we struggle at these three levels, we need three kinds of spiritualties in our lives. Life reveals itself above us and below us and on the flat plain of ordinariness. None of these may be ignored.

Somewhere in the Old Testament, Job describes the misery of human condition when he laments that his life is filled with “drudgery;” he feels trapped and is without hope. This also describes the condition of people who came to Jesus for healing and of those Jesus preached to. Jesus overturns the human condition, bringing hope and healing – then and now. In reaching out to those who came to him from every city, Jesus responds to the universal human condition of misery and hopelessness. But He always does so in a very personal way. His ministry is truly about all humanity’s experiencing the transformation of human hopelessness through personal encounter with Him.