Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
As a teacher myself, this Gospel is one of those moments when I feel very connected to Christ the teacher. In today’s Gospel, Christ uses this beautiful parable of the sower and the seed to help illustrate the various paths the Word of God can take when spoken into the world. Christ outlines the four ways in which people respond to His message. I love this parable and the comparisons it draws, but that was not my favorite part of this gospel.
When we read Mark 4:13 – 15, we hear, “Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?” As a fellow teacher, I can hear Jesus’ frustration, exhaustion, and annoyance in these questions. But I also hear something more. I hear Jesus’ trust in his disciples – he knows they can understand this, His desire for this to make sense, and His deep compassion for them. All teachers know this sense of mixed emotions. Because Christ cares so deeply for His disciples, he wants them to grasp the message of his parable, but they struggle to do so. And I think he wants this same thing for us – he desperately wants his Word to make sense and take root in our hearts too. Christ wants His word to fall upon rich soil and bear much fruit.
Just as I tell my second graders, who are frustrated with not knowing their math facts, for something to really stick we have to practice it and create muscle memory for it to take root. So it is with the Word of God. For the Gospel message to have any chance of taking root in our hearts we must immerse ourselves in it – reading the scriptures, taking part in the sacraments and spending time in prayer. This practice creates fertile soil for Christ’s gospel to take root and bear a multitude of fruit. Amen.
—AJ Grimm