By Francis Gayang csc –
Readings: Heb 10:11-18; Mk 4:1-20
Verse 9 of the parable of the sower says, “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen”. For me personally the parable deals with the kind of responses others and I give to the invitation of the word of God: not of intellectual manipulation but a genuine one that flows from the heart. How do I receive the seed of the Word of God that fell into my heart? Jesus came across people of various sorts.
There were hard and rocky hearted people like Pharisees who always gave wrong interpretation of whatever Jesus said or did. There was also the shallow and enthusiastic crowd who took the word of God according to their convenience. They are like short seasonal crops and use God’s name only for economic benefit. Yet, Jesus is never disheartened, but continued to sow the seed of God’s word with patience and love.
As a seminarian I am supposed to be the fertile one, the soil where the seed of God’s word bears fruit thirty, sixty and a hundredfold. To the people outside I am God’s favored one and fertile. But in reality I can be a hypocritic fertile soil of chemicals. By words I stand perfectly for God’s will alone, but the deficiency of actions and easygoing attitude in my life show a contradiction. An opportunity given to know and understand him is to be my primary duty. The invitation for me as his child is to listen to him with the heart. Th verse 13 of the gospel passage pose me a question that if I am not able to understand him, then how I will understand the purpose of my calling. God wants me to digest his word in my heart.