Mark 4:1-20:
[1] And again he began to teach by the sea side; and a great multitude was gathered together unto him, so that he went up into a ship, and sat in the sea; and all the multitude was upon the land by the sea side. [2] And he taught them many things in parables, and said unto them in his doctrine: [3] Hear ye: Behold, the sower went out to sow. [4] And whilst he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. [5] And other some fell upon stony ground, where it had not much earth; and it shot up immediately, because it had no depth of earth.
[6] And when the sun was risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. [7] And some fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. [8] And some fell upon good ground; and brought forth fruit that grew up, and increased and yielded, one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred. [9] And he said: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. [10] And when he was alone, the twelve that were with him asked him the parable.
[11] And he said to them: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but to them that are without, all things are done in parables: [12] That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand: lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. [13] And he saith to them: Are you ignorant of this parable? and how shall you know all parables? [14] He that soweth, soweth the word. [15] And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown, and as soon as they have heard, immediately Satan cometh and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
[16] And these likewise are they that are sown on the stony ground: who when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. [17] And they have no root in themselves, but are only for a time: and then when tribulation and persecution ariseth for the word they are presently scandalized. [18] And others there are who are sown among thorns: these are they that hear the word, [19] And the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word, and it is made fruitless. [20] And these are they who are sown upon the good ground, who hear the word, and receive it, and yield fruit, the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred.
Praised be Jesus Christ!
Now and Forever. Amen.
I'll admit it. Jesus made this one easy for me, since, you know, He gives its explanation right there in the Gospel. So you have a sower sows seeds, and these fall on different kinds of ground, and different things happen to them. I'll summarize the explanation as follows:
1.) The Sower is he who sows the word--the seeds are the word.
2.) The seeds that fall by the wayside and are immediately eaten by birds--this represents those who hear the word, but which immediately have the word taken from their hearts by Satan.
3.) The seeds sown on rocky ground and shoot up quickly but are scorched by the sun--this represents those who receive the word with great joy, but having no "root" in themselves, when the tribulation and persecution arise, they fall away.
4.) The seeds sown among thorns and the thorns choked them out--this represents people who receive the word, but the cares of the world, the deceit of riches, and other lusts choke the word are render it fruitless.
5.) The seed sown on good ground--this represents those who hear the word, receive it into their hearts, and produce fruit, to varying degrees.
Although Jesus explains the parable, there are things to say about it, beyond the basic explanation. In other words, the explanation Jesus gives can be unpacked further.
The sower is principally Jesus Christ, Who is simultaneously the Word that is sown, and of course the word is also the Gospel. I realize that's probably confusing. Jesus is the Word because He is the perfect self-expression of the Father, Who sends His Son to the world to redeem it. The Father is often referred to by Christ in His parables as a landowner, the owner of a vineyard, etc. He is likened to a gardener, and the Son is sent into the world to produce good crop. So, in a real sense, the Father is actually the sower.
However, I say Jesus is principally the sower in this parable because the work of sowing is principally the work of the Church, and the various people who receive the word in their various ways are represented in this parable. Furthermore, that principle work is the spreading of the Gospel, and the Church doesn't exercise this work of Her own power, but rather it is Christ Who works through Her. Yet, this signifies something important: that every Christian who spreads the Gospel is actually the sower here, realizing that in the spreading of the Gospel, Jesus works through each of us.
The structure of the parable is interesting. It first lays out the three different stages of faith life that the Gospel may be rejected, and then finishes by revealing that the good ground represents the faithful disciple as he who overcomes each of these other failings: he who hears it, receives it, and bears fruit. This helps us understand the fundamental problem of the other three who failed: that is, he who doesn't hear it, he who doesn't receive it, and he who doesn't bear fruit. Let's take a closer look at each.
The seed that falls by the wayside: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who, immediately after hearing the word, Satan comes and takes the word out of his heart. We must always remember that the principle way that Satan attacks us is through temptation. We often don't think about this in our day. We tend to think that the influence Satan and his devils have on us is through things like possession, or the lesser known obsession and oppression. But these are extraordinary interactions. The ordinary way Satan tries to harm us is to cause us to fall into sin through temptation. So, when we see Satan come to take the word away here, we should understand it first to mean that he is tempting the hearer of the word to reject it. Note, this action by Satan is immediate, meaning that as soon as the person hears the word he is tempted to reject it. Thus, immediately rejecting the Gospel, this person is principally characterized as not hearing the word--and consequently neither receives it nor bears fruit.
The seed sown on rocky ground: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. However, the receiving of the word is deficient, because this person has "no root in themselves, but are only for a time." This kind of person is flighty, moving from project to project, perhaps never staying with a thing to completion, filled with emotion, but lacking a consistent principle that grounds them in themselves. So, being filled with joy, they receive the word, recognizing its truth and goodness, but being shallow, when the tribulations of the world, or persecution, come--and they will come--they fall away from the faith. What this signifies is that, though he received the word immediately into his heart with joy, it wasn't a complete reception. It was incomplete. The word should be that thing that grounds us, that is the consistent thing in our life that we can always return to, the thing to hold onto to get through our tribulations, the one thing worth receiving persecution for. This is what it means to receive it into our hearts--to recognize that this is the pearl of great price, that we should sell everything to keep it. Thus, this person, the rocky ground, is the person who hears it but doesn't receive it, and consequently also doesn't bear fruit.
One more note on this seed. When tribulations and persecutions arise, this person becomes scandalized. We have this idea in modern times that to be scandalized means something like shocked and appalled by some evil or outrageous thing you've observed. That's not what scandal is. A scandal is a thing that leads a person into sin. So, to be scandalized means that these people, on account of the tribulation or persecution, are thereby led into sin. What sin? Well, principally to fall away from the faith. This could be through schism, heresy, apostasy, or some other grave sin.
The seed sown among thorns: Jesus explains that this seed represents the word sown in the heart of a person who hears the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts after other things entering in choke the word, and make it fruitless. This is the person who hears the word, receives it fully, but fails to produce fruit. Why? There are three reasons that are given why one may fail to produce fruit: the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and lusts after other things.
The cares of the world aren't in themselves wicked. Indeed, the cares of the world may even be good things: taking care of your family and friends, supporting yourself, engaging in politics, etc. The problem here is when the cares of the world take precedence over and above the faith. When that happens, you're choking out the Gospel from your heart, such that it does not bear fruit. Keep in mind that a fruit houses a seed, so to produce fruit is to facilitate the sowing of the word in the hearts of others. If your focus is on the world such that it excludes things of the Faith, then you will fail to produce the fruits of that Faith, which are to spread the Gospel to others.
The deceitfulness of riches represents the lie that wealth is that thing which is necessary to improving your own life, or the lives of others. It is alluring, because wealth does allow for much good, but with wealth comes a great temptation of self-interest. Wealth in itself is neither good nor evil, but its allure is corrupting. We are all called to be content with our various stations in life, whatever they may be. And, to be content with our station in life allows us to keep our focus on our faith life. If we do this, and we produce much fruit even in our own small way, God will reward us with more. Yet, material reward should never been our focus. Our goal should ever be on our everlasting, eternal reward in heaven. If we allow ourselves to fall into the allure of wealth, and the utopian dream, this will choke out our faith, and we will not bear fruit.
The lusts after other things is definitely wicked, and this represents a failure to root out vice from our lives. It's not sufficient only to receive the word into our hearts, as is implied by our Protestant brothers. Each of these failures, the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, and other lusts, will cause us to fail to spread the Gospel. What they have in common is that they represent failures to put God and His Gospel at the center of our lives--they represent distractions that keep us from growing and maturing in the faith, such that we fail to produce fruit. Keep in mind, these "enter in", which signifies that one may start out his faith life free of these things, but that some time after receiving the word, these thing enter in, and impede the development of our faith. So, the seed that falls on this ground is heard, received, but fails to bear fruit.
The seed that falls on good ground: This represents the person who hears the word, receives it, and produces good fruit. As seen from our previous analysis, this means it is the person who hears the word, grants his intellectual assent to it, allows it to change his life, who he is, what he's all about, his mission in life, etc., and finally, as a consequence of being thusly transformed, becomes a fellow sower in the field, evangelizing others, and spreading the Gospel. Keep in mind that this doesn't mean you have to be a missionary in Africa, or something like this. This could be as simple as parents raising their children in the Faith. That sounds simple, but it really does require parents to be fully invested in the Faith, themselves. If they aren't, their children will see through it, and will be scandalized by it, and fall away from the Faith in their adulthood.
One final note, and this goes back to my earlier point about being content with your station in life, those who produce fruit do so to varying degrees: "the one thirty, another sixty, and another a hundred." This according to each person's ability, station, degree of holiness, etc. Jesus doesn't lament this fact, that not everyone produces a hundred. It doesn't seem to matter to Him. All the matters is that you are producing fruit. So, don't worry if you're not doing the kind of work that Mother Angelica did, or Pope John Paul II, or St. Francis, St. Thomas Aquinas, etc. Don't worry. Just do your best, and God will reward your effort.
If you're like me, you've probably already heard and accepted the word, and maybe aren't quite producing fruit yet, but are still working through the process of receiving the word into your heard. That's okay. Keep at it. Keep the Faith at the center. Work on rooting out vice, and building virtue, and as I say, God will reward your effort.
God bless you, and thank you for reading.
