Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I’ve been doing a lot of serious weeding this summer. I don’t mean just pulling up dandelions and other little plants, I’m talking about uprooting heavy-duty invasive ground-covering plants, vines, and ivy that have practically taken over our backyard. Yes, we’ve neglected it for too long as life has taken us this way and that over the past several years. And now I’m seeing how little-by-little these weeds have “choked out” the other plants. Just like the “worldly anxiety” and “lure of riches” choke out “the word of the Kingdom” in today’s gospel passage from Matthew (13:18-23).
Jesus is explaining to his disciples the parable of the sower. One that we’ve probably all heard or read many times in our lives: about the seed sown on the path, or rocky ground, or among thorns (like the weeds in my backyard), as opposed to the seed sown on rich soil. That’s what Jesus wants for us – the Word to be sown on the rich soil of hearts that hear and understand so that it bears fruit “and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” That’s a lot!
But how easily do we, little-by-little, get distracted by “wordly anxiety and the lure of riches” in our everyday lives? And before we know it these anxieties and lures have choked out the seeds that Jesus wants to take root in our hearts, in our lives, in order to bear much fruit. It’s not what we intend either; yet, I think it happens (at least in my experience) when we aren’t attentive to cultivating the soil, weeding out the “anxieties and lures” regularly through prayerful discernment, and the grace of the sacraments.
My backyard garden isn’t finished yet. But I’ve made some significant progress and look forward to enjoying the fruits of my labor by the end of the summer. I hope and pray that the garden of your heart and mine bears much fruit too – a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold! By the grace of God, let it be so. Amen.
~Eileen Miller