Homily for the Week of July 13, 2008

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time A 2008
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

This week I came across a book entitled Shopping Malls and Other Sacred Spaces. The book offers a staggering statistic, which could motivate our desire to ''go green.'' The writer speaks of the value of a single tree. Based on our current value of the American dollar, every year each mature tree produces $73 worth of air conditioning, $75 worth of erosion control, $75 in wildlife shelter, and $50 in air pollution control. Doing a little mathematics means that a single tree living an average of 50 years has had a value of $57,000! Imagine. A single seed over 50 years will have the equivalent value of $57,000. A single seed can be very precious.

At this time of the year many of you enjoy showing off your gardens or your outdoor flowers. Those of you who grow things, whether in a window box, a garden, or farm, know that you need to feed the soil so the plants will flourish. You dose the small potted plant with liquid feed, you replace the soil in the window box, you heap compost onto the garden, and you fertilize the corn fields. We just can't keep taking things out of the soil without replacing it. However good the quality or abundant the quality of the seed, a rich harvest can't be achieved without good soil in which to grow it.

At the time of Jesus, because of the condition of the soil in Israel it was difficult to get seeds to grow. Weeds, most commonly a kind of thorn, were plowed into the ground. Often, farmers did not plow the land before seeding but just scattered the seeds everywhere. Some fell on the paths and some on the edges and some on the rich soil where it should be falling Many of the seeds were eaten up by the birds. But the limestone rock was right near the surface so there was hardly any topsoil.

Today the Bible gives us an image of Jesus the farmer or the gardener. He gives us one of his best known stories or parables: the story of the sower. As a good teacher he was illustrating his teaching through ordinary examples of work, weather, and nature. While he was talking mainly to fishermen, they could instantly recognized the scene of the story he was telling them: Imagine a farmer going out to sow, he says.

But Jesus is not telling us the story of the seed in order to have a greener America. For Jesus as for Isaiah the seed refers to speaking, not planting. It refers to the word of God given to us in the Bible. And so Jesus tells of all the possibilities of how the seed could fall, and grow or not grow. Jesus tells us he is willing to teach us, but people will only learn from him if they make an effort -- and he is saddened by the fact that many do not. He quotes Isaiah: You will indeed hear, but not understand, and you shall indeed look, but never see. For Jesus the seed is the word of God and the different kinds of ground on which the seed falls are the different kinds of listeners or Catholics who hear his word.

As I mentioned last week 40% of Americans will say that they are Catholic. But many of these practice their Catholic religion in different ways, or they understand it differently. That can include some of us here today. Each one of us here at this Mass may fit into one of the four types of ground that Jesus mentions. That means that we may hear the same words or Catholic teachings, but we apply them differently to ourselves according to our situation. DVD's, Facebook, Myspace, Halo 3, cell phones are the constant companions of young adults today. We have different ground on which the word of God falls. Let me give you examples.

PATH PEOPLE: are those who may use religion for special occasions in their lives such as for the Baptism of a baby or First Communion or Confirmation or Marriage.

ROCKY GROUND PEOPLE: are those who may come to church after a crisis in their lives, or important event like a wedding. There is Catholic faith in their life, but it is not strong enough to make it a weekly practice.

THORNS PEOPLE: are those who will come to church regularly until something happens in their life such as a divorce, or leaving home for college, Often their daily lives are so busy that they can't take time out of their busy schedule for an hour of church a week.

THE RICH SOIL PEOPLE: are those, while very human and even sinful, hear the truth of Jesus and faith and genuinely try to put the wisdom of that truth into practice. They may have, and even now, may have rocky ground and thorns, but they have come to realize that nothing else satisfies except the daily practice of religion and prayer.

We are all sowers of seed. By our attitudes, our beliefs, our actions we sow seeds of encouragement, joy and reconciliation -- but some of the seeds we sow contribute to cycles of discouragement, anger, violence, abuse, enslavement and injustice. The call to discipleship, however, calls us to be careful and deliberate “sowers” of a harvest far greater and lasting than our own interests and profit. Christ calls us to be sowers of his Word in every situation and relationship, especially when such “sowing” results yields a harvest that benefits others far more than benefits us.