It has taken me years to grasp the meaning of the parable of the Sower and the Seed. I grew up in Dorchester, Massachusetts, familiar with street corners.  However, I have called Southeastern Virginia home for much of my adult life. We have beautiful fields around the parish I serve. Farming is part of the pattern of life and our local economy benefits greatly.

Jesus drew examples from the experience of those who followed him during his public ministry. His disciples understood preparing the soil in the fields, planting the seed and reaping the crops. The meaning of the agrarian parables becomes clear as I watch the fields near the parish church I serve become green every spring. They seemed lifeless before the seed was sown. Preparing the ground to receive the seed involves hard work, cooperative weather and the goodness of God.

I have also come to understand the work involved in cultivating the soil, selecting and sowing the seed, and praying for cooperative weather, while lovingly caring for the nascent crops. This has happened vicariously for me; through the farmers I have come to serve in years of ministry.

My admiration for their work has grown immensely. So too has my gratitude for the grace of the Creator and Father who loves us all so much that he sent his Son to save us and make us new creations. (2 Cor. 5:17) He has sown the seed of his Word and Kingdom within each one of us.

The power of God is in that seed, inviting our response, our free choice, to his continued cultivation and care. Whether that seed finds rich soil is affected by our free cooperation with his grace. As we respond to his grace by surrendering ourselves to his care, formation and placement in the fields of the world, life changes, and so do we.  In Matthew’s account Jesus tells the story (Matt. 13:1-9) then explains in verses 18-23:

Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.

The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.

The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Luke, in his account of another parable of the kingdom, emphasizes that the Kingdom spreads in the world:

Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.” (Luke 13:18-21)

The image of seed sown in a field has implications for how we live our daily lives. The Living Word has been sown within each one of us. We must cultivate the ground of our hearts to be transformed by grace and reflect the image and likeness of God. We are all called to holiness. That means our Christian life involves ongoing conversion, as we allow the Risen Life of Jesus to be revealed in us.

The apostle Paul exclaimed, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20) We are seed, placed in the Holy, bloodstained Hands of Jesus, to be spread into the world. Jesus lives his Life in and through us, to be revealed to a world waiting to be born again.

God still loves the world he created and still sends his Son. He does so through the Church, the Body of Christ, of which his people are all members. (John 3:16, 1 Cor. 12:27) Together as Church we are a seed and sign of the kingdom to come — when the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ, returns.

This world was created through the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the spoken Word of the Father. This world is being re-created through the Incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, who continues his redemptive mission through his Body. As we allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify and empower us, we become living seeds of his Kingdom, spread in the garden of the world, a part of a marvelous loving plan.

In one of his sermons, St. Jose Maria Escriva reflected,

Jesus is the sower, and he goes about his task by means of us Christians. Christ presses the grain in his wounded hands, soaks it in his blood, cleans it, purifies it, and throws it into the furrows, into the world. He plants the seeds one by one so that each Christian in his own setting can bear witness to the fruitfulness of the death and resurrection of the Lord.

He continued,

If we are in Christ’s hands, we should absorb his saving blood and let ourselves be cast on the wind. We should accept our life as God wants it. And we should be convinced that the seed must be buried and die if it is to be fruitful.

We are soil and seed in the hands of Jesus.