Stories

By Fr. Anh Nhue

Following the path of Jesus’ public evangelizing activities in Matthew’s Gospel along the Sundays of liturgical year A, we now come to the beginning of a new peculiar section, the one of the parables. In this part, the evangelist shows a Jesus Master and the Wise of God, revealing the mystery of the Kingdom through the simple stories of daily life. We, who have heard these parables of Jesus many times before, face the risk of no longer feeling awe or paying attention before these gems of religious narrative, which originally amazed quite a few listeners. Parabolic narratives were in fact the hallmark of the teaching of the Master of Nazareth, rightly regarded as the genius of parables. It is therefore necessary to make ourselves humble and small even today in the school of Jesus, in order to taste anew the freshness and ancient but always new wisdom of His parables, beginning with that of the sower, which Jesus offers as the first of the whole series and therefore the most important.

1. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” A Key Parable of Jesus for Every Listener

Actually, the prominence of the parable of the sower over the others is highlighted by the fact that the synoptic evangelists report it at the beginning of Jesus’ teaching in parables. Indeed, as St. Mark the evangelist pointed out, Jesus himself emphasized the fundamental role of this parabolic account in understanding the others: “Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?’”(Mk 4:13). It is therefore the key parable because it is intended to provoke a fundamental “ jolt” in the listeners, recalling in them a right attitude toward the teaching of Jesus who spoke almost exclusively in a parabolic way, as remarked by the evangelist Mark: “Without parables he did not speak to them” (Mk 4:34).

The importance of this parable emerges even more from its particular conclusion: “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” It is the phrase often found on Jesus’ lips and thus can be called the “wisdom refrain” in His speeches (cf., e.g., Mt 13:43). It is the exhortation to reflection and understanding of the teaching given, translatable as, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” It recurs throughout the Synoptic traditions as well as in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas (as many as 6 times). Moreover, it is also found in the speeches of the risen Jesus to the communities of the faithful in Rev. (cf. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22; 13:9); this demonstrates the great “popularity” of the saying that can be traced back to the historical Jesus..

With St. Jerome and many modern authors we can point out that the fundamental meaning of these formulas is not parenetic (invitation to obey and act) but noetic: it is the invitation to reflect, to pay attention in order to understand. This is also confirmed by Jesus’ exhortation in Mk 7:14: “Listen to me all and understand!” (cf. also Mk 7:18). In any case, regardless of the problem of interpretation, it is sufficient to note that behind Jesus’ saying there is a glimpse of the image of the wise man or even the Wisdom of God calling, as he did in the Old Testament tradition, particularly through the voice of the wise man at the end of the wisdom psalm praising God’s wonders in creation and salvation history: “Whoever is wise will take note of these things, and ponder the merciful deeds of the LORD.” (Ps 107:43). It therefore always takes a wise listening that comes from an awareness of being small before the divine message, which is now revealed with and in Jesus through parables. That is why, in the liturgy of the Eastern Church, before every proclamation of the Gospel, the deacon literally “cries out” in Greek: Sophia! That is to say, Wisdom!

2. “A sower went out to sow.” The Mystery of Christ the Sower and God the Farmer

With the right attitude of wise listening, let us now taste more closely the sweetness and beauty of the parabolic story heard today which is, we would like to reiterate, the most important of Jesus’ parables.

Aside from the pressing message for all of us to think about “improving” the soil of our hearts in order to make the seed of the Word received bear fruit, the most beautiful aspect of the story concerns the generosity of the protagonist who sows without too much calculation or reservation not taking into account the various conditions of the soil. Such generous action even borders on folly if not downright foolishness: why did he not avoid “the path,” the “rocky ground,” the “thorns”? Obviously, it should be pointed out that these are probably the parts pertaining to the field. Moreover, from what the story and the sowing practice of the time suggest, what the sower does is simply to throw the seeds into the field, while a portion still ends up in the neighboring no-good soils precisely because of this abundant and generous sowing. In any case, it is an analogy, though not a perfect one, of the mystery of Christ the sower par excellence who sows the Word of God to all without any discrimination.

Thus, rather than a story about the fate of the seed, an image of God’s Word, whether or not it produces fruit in the soil of each hearer’s heart, this is the parable of the generous sower who always “went out” on mission despite the possible poor yield that awaited him. Only a quarter of the seeds sown bear fruit, and in varying quantities. Apparently, this will be precisely the most important message for Jesus’ disciples-missionaries today, those called to continue his own mission of the divine Sower. Despite the reality that arouses no small amount of perplexity and distrust in the “appropriateness” and “usefulness” of proclamation, the disciples-missionaries are invited to always go forward fearlessly and always with generosity to bring the Word of God with and in Christ to all. It is, after all, the same determination and generosity as Christ during his public ministry to the end.

3. Renewing the Mission of Evangelization Based on the Word of God

So, the message of today’s parable urges us to renew the zeal of sowing the Word of God, and at the same time, to revive the fervor in listening wisely to It in life as disciples-missionaries of Christ. We must allow ourselves to be evangelized by the Word of God heard and meditated upon daily, so that we can share with others the joy and inspiration that come from It. Interestingly, Christ himself after the resurrection continued to proclaim and explain the Word. He actually approached His lost and frightened disciples like those at Emmaus to “open” the Holy Scriptures to them again. Therefore, we know how to listen and wisely listen again to his voice so that we can share with neighbors and friends the beauty of God’s Word lived in us. There is so much need to renew more and more the mission of evangelization well founded on the Word of God. In this regard, this is the Pope’s authoritative teaching to us in his Message for World Mission (Sun)Day 2023:

It follows that knowledge of Scripture is important for the Christian life, and even more so for the preaching of Christ and his Gospel. Otherwise, what are you passing on to others if not your own ideas and projects? A cold heart can never make other hearts burn!

So let us always be willing to let ourselves be accompanied by the Risen Lord as he explains to us the meaning of the Scriptures. May he make our hearts burn within us; may he enlighten and transform us, so that we can proclaim his mystery of salvation to the world with the power and wisdom that come from his Spirit.

Let us pray then (in the words of the alternative Collect prayer in the Italian Missal for Sunday XV, Year A):

Increase in us, O Father, by the power of your Spirit the readiness to accept the seed of your word, which you continue to sow in the furrows of humanity, so that it may bear fruit in works of justice and peace and reveal to the world the blessed hope of your kingdom. Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.