Trong bài Tin Mừng hôm nay, Chúa Giêsu đã cho chúng ta bài học mới về Nước Trời giống như một người gieo giống một hình ảnh mà dân Việt Nam chúng ta rất quen thuộc.
Hình ảnh người gieo giống hôm nay là người đem đến niềm hy vọng, đem sự sống mới cho thế giới. Khi người gieo giống gieo những hạt giống mới, ông ta vui mừng và hy vọng sau một vài tháng, những hạt giống này sẽ mọc lên thành cây và sẽ mang lại những hoa trái và họ sẽ được hưởng lợi sau mùa thu hoạch. Mặc dù ông ta biết rằng một số hạt giống ông đã gieo có thể sẽ bị chim tha mất, sẽ bị vướng trên nhữnh bụi gai và sẽ không phát triển được, nhưng ông vẫn tiếp tục gieo.
Qua bài dụ ngôn này, chúng ta có thể nhận ra rằng chính Thiên Chúa là người gieo giống, Ngài gieo Lời của Ngài trong trái tim của chúng ta. Ngài cũng biết rằng Lời của Ngài cũng như những hạt giống bị rơi vương vãi, bị lạc mất trong những người tự coi mình là cái rốn của vũ trụ, hay những người chỉ biết đến sự những đam mê vật chất tiền tài và xác thịt... Cũng có một số người trong chúng ta đã khép chặt tâm hồn và từ chối nhận Lời của Thiên Chúa, Có những người khác cũng đã đón nhận Lời của Chúa một cách hời hợt, vì họ quá bận rộn với việc kiếm cơm nuôi gia đình và vì đó mà Lời của Chúa không còn chỗ trong tâm hồn của họ nữa.
Nhưng, như những người nông dân gieo giống trên các đồng lúa, Thiên Chúa của chúng ta là Thiên Chúa của niềm hy vọng và niềm vui. Ngài biết rằng dù có những hạt lúa giống bị chim trời tha đi, có những hạt rơi vào bụi gai bên đường, hay bất cứ nơi nào nhưng Ngài biết rằng cũng có những người đã nghe và sống thực hành Lời của Ngài, đó là những "người biết suy ngẫm về Lời của Chúa ngày và đêm" và làm cho Lời Chúa hoàn toàn sống trong cuộc sống của họ và trong cuộc sống của những người khác.
Còn chúng ta, chúng ta là những loại đất nào trong cánh đồng mà Chúa đã và đang gieo những hạt giống của Ngài? Để đón nhận Lời Chúa dành cho chúng ta, Chúng ta hãy nâng tâm hồn và cất lên tiếng hát và hát thật chân thành bài hát: "Ôi lạy Chúa, Lời Chúa hằng sống của con, xin hãy để Lời Chúa đâm rễ thật sâu ngay trong con người chúng con, trong trái tim của chúng con. Ôi Lời Chúa của chúng con, Xin Chúa hãy khoả lấp đầy tâm trí của chúng con.
A sower is a man of hope, a man of life. As he sows, he rejoices that one day those seeds will sprout up to yield a harvest. Even though he knows that some seeds that he sows will be lost — will not grow, he still continues to sow In this parable of the sower, we realize that the sower is God Himself, who sows His Word in our hearts. He too knows that the Word will be lost in those who are chocked up with problems, tensions, self-centeredness, consumerism and materialism. He knows that some hearts are shut and refuse to receive the Word of God. There are others too, who are so busy making money, so busy trying to gain prestige, power and recognition that the Word of God gets crowded out. But, like every sower, our God is a God of hope and joy.
He knows that there are also people who listen attentively to His Word, “who ponder on His Word day and night” and make God’s Word fully alive in their lives and in the lives of others. And what of us? Let us sincerely sing/say: “O, the Word of my Lord, deep within my being. O, the Word of my Lord, You have filled my mind.”
“Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” Luke 8:8
This short line is, in a sense, a summary of the Parable of the Sower. This parable presents us with four different ways in which the Word of God is received. The seed that is sown is the Word of God. The four different categories of people are compared to seed sown on a path, rocky ground, among thorns and in good soil.
Jesus explains that the seed sown on the path are those “who have heard, but the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts.” The seed sown on rocky ground are those who “receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of temptation.” The seed sown among thorns are those who have heard the Word and received it, but over time they are “choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit.” Finally, those who are like rich soil are those who heard the Word and “embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”
As you look at those categories of people, where do you fall? Most likely, for those who pray daily and try to follow our Lord, one of the last two categories is where they fall. Note that for those who are like seed sown in the thorns and those sown in rich soil, fruit is born from the Word of God. In other words, their lives do change and they do make a difference in the world on account of God’s holy Word and presence in their lives. The difference, however, is that those who struggle with “the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life” will fail to produce “mature fruit.” This is a good teaching for faithful Christians to ponder.
When you look at your life, what sort of fruit do you see? The “fruit” of which our Lord speaks can be identified with the fruits of the Spirit: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, forbearance, gentleness, faith, modesty, self-control, and chastity. Thus, if you want to discern whether you are more like one who bears mature fruit vs. immature fruit, look at those holy qualities carefully. How “mature” are each of these fruits of the Spirit alive in your life? They make a wonderful examination of conscience for those looking to go deeper than just the Ten Commandments or Seven Capital Sins. If these good fruits are born from your life in a truly mature way, you should be able to see how they affect others through you. For example, how has your kindness, patience, faith and self-control helped others in their Christian Walk?
Reflect, today, upon the fruits of the Spirit. Review them carefully and prayerfully as you examine your own life. Where you see them in abundance, rejoice and give thanks, and work to foster their growth. Where you see them lacking, rejoice also in that insight and consider the reason they are lacking. Are there worldly anxieties, desires for riches or pleasures that hinder their growth? Seek to be that truly rich soil, and our Lord will indeed bring forth much good fruit in you and through you.
My divine Sower, You sow the perfect seeds of Your Word in abundance. Please help me to open my heart to receive that Word so that an abundance of good fruit can be born. Please free me from the anxieties and deceptions of life so that I can hear clearly Your holy Word and nurture that Word in my heart. I rejoice, dear Lord, in all that You have and continue to do in and through me. Jesus, I trust in You.
Opening Prayer: Jesus, as I reflect on these words, please cleanse me of the thorns, weeds, and rocks in my life. May your words take root in me and bloom. I desire to be a person who, having heard your word, does “embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.”
Our Enemy: Jesus is quite clear in this parable: The devil is real, and he is the enemy of our souls. Satan delights in distracting our hearts away from the words of the Gospel. He knows our weaknesses and uses them against us. In the Netflix series The Good Place, the demons use the characteristics and personalities of each person against them; Strategically, they torment each soul in a specific and personal way. When we pray to St. Michael the Archangel to “defend us in battle” and ask God to “cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls,” we are not speaking in hyperbole. The threat is real; the battle is constant. Our enemy is wily and loves to mess with our minds, hearts, and souls to distract us and lure us away from our Savior. “The battle against the devil, which is the principal task of St. Michael the Archangel, is still being fought today because the devil is still alive and active in the world” (St. John Paul II, 1987).
Seeds are the basic units of life. In the parable story, the seed is the Word of God. God has been so generous with us and blessed us with His word. But only a few listen because the others are blinded by the material things and idols on earth. Though the word may be hidden for a few, it is still there. They only need faith in order to overcome all these hindrances that stray them from the Lord. People are concrete seeds of God. We are made by the creator and we should all therefore be filled with positive characteristics. It is only the people tainted by the devil who are the bad seeds who have no root, no stable ground for their faith. Therefore they crumble into the depths of hell. Though all of us have the natural tendency to sin and be sinners, we also have the choice to do the right thing because we are always given choices. It is our duty to pick the right choice and do the right thing so that way, we may be pure in the eyes of God.
Let us recognize the fact that God accomplishes his purposes by helping us to attain ours. Let us continue to ask God to help us be more receptive to his word and become more serious about our spiritual growth. In other words, let God's seed fall on in our hearts and produce crops a hundredfold
May we hear it, cherish it and live it with patience and perseverance.
Jesus was a great story-teller; he made use of the common life of the people, "You have been granted to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But to others it is given in the form of stories, or parables, so that seeing they may not perceive and hearing they may not understand."
The parable of the sower and the seed tells us how the word of God is received by people, comparing the reception and response of people to the way seeds sown on various soils and environments prospered or died.
Obviously all of us wish to be like the seed which fell on good soil, grew and produced fruit a hundred-fold. Our Lord explained that "the good soil are people who receive the word and keep it in a gentle and generous mind, and persevering patiently, they bear fruit."
Are we people like those who our Lord said bore good and plentiful fruit?
Or are we people, like the wayside, who do not even have the patience to listen to God's word or like rocky ground "who receive the word . . . but they have no root, they believe for a while and give way in time of trial" or, like among thorns, "who hear the word but as they go their way, are choked by worries, riches, and the pleasures of life; they bring no fruit to maturity."
We hear God's word in many ways: in Church and at various talks and gatherings, in our own reading and study of the Scriptures, in private prayer and through the Spirit in the silence of our own hearts, in our dealings with and from the example of others. May we hear it, cherish it and live it with patience and perseverance.
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