Who among us would consider ourselves to
be blessed or gifted? Who among us are among the good soil over which the seed,
the Word of God that Jesus describes in today’s Gospel reading, is sown?
With some boldness, I say that I would
consider each and every one of us here to be blessed or gifted, perhaps not in
the same way from person to person, but blessed and gifted nonetheless. With
notable, even some scandalous exceptions, even here in our city of Rochester,
we live in affluence relative to most people in our world. We live in a
peaceful and secure country. We gather in this space; as one St. Kateri Parish
to worship God. Even more significantly, I believe that Jesus does not only
speak to a people who lived thousands of years ago in a distant land when he
says: “Blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they
hear.” Jesus speaks primarily to us, here and now.
To be a people that is blessed and
gifted; to be baptized into this communion of brothers and sisters in Christ
carries with it an important responsibility. We are called to be the “good soil”
of which Jesus speaks in our Gospel reading while at the same time co-operating
with our Lord in sowing the seed; the Word of God with which we are blessed;
which dwells and multiplies its blessing in every one of us. This kind of
sowing of the seed, the Word of God, is called evangelization; literally spreading good news.
How, then, are we to be the “good soil”
while at the same time being sowers of the Good News; the Word of God, after
Jesus Christ? This task may seem daunting to us. It may seem overwhelming for
us to think of being at once “good soil” and sowers, or evangelists, when we
think of our own shortcomings; when we think of the times when we have not been
as good soil as we were created and baptized to be.
Have we ever experienced being the few
grains of soil “on the path,” incapable of sustaining growth of the seed; the
Word of God? When have we not understood the Word of God well enough in order to
spread it? This lack of understanding could be because at times we have not
listened well enough to God’s Word that has been communicated to us, or because
we as Church have simply not communicated the Word of God effectively enough
for it to be received and to bear fruit. Are we at times “the rocky ground”
that receives the Word of God with a vibrant but short-lived joy that cannot
sustain itself in difficult times in our lives? Are we sometimes the thorns of
“worldly anxiety and… riches” that choke out the Word of God? The affluence and
power of our country in relationship to most of our world often serves the good
particularly of the less powerful; the needy; the poor, but it can easily
become self-serving.
Have not many if not all of us had
experiences of being soil that cannot sustain or allow further growth of the
Word of God; experiences of failure; experiences of sin? And yet, only if we do
not allow these experiences to make us afraid, but we ask God and one another
for forgiveness and the strength to spread the Good News of Christ, will we be
effective evangelizers, at once “the good soil” and good sowers. As Pope
Francis has said repeatedly since he became pope, we are called not to close in
on ourselves as a fearful Church, but to go out to the periphery. We are called
to sow God’s Word among the many “prophets and righteous people” of our time of
whom Jesus speaks in our Gospel reading; who have yet to hear and to see the
Word of God proclaimed and lived; who have lost hope; who are poor; who are
hurting; who are estranged from the Church; from God, for whatever reason.
Pope Francis has also said repeatedly
that we cannot tire of asking for forgiveness from a God who does not tire of
forgiving us; of watering and fertilizing our soil; of helping us to sow the
seed of the Good News of Jesus Christ. Even more significantly, our pope has
said, we cannot be afraid of making the occasional mess when we are sowing. The
alternative is not sowing at all; the alternative is to stifle God’s word with
which we are all gifted. This would be a shame.
We are invited to be at once sowers of
the Word of God and the good and fertile soil for this Word to bear fruit. This
entails being unafraid of making the occasional mess. Well before I was a
Basilian, I worked as a mushroom farmer. In each mushroom growing room, we
farmers first had to roll the soil from large machines onto the growing beds.
Second, we would sprinkle the mushroom spores (which were similar in appearance
to grains of rice) between layers of soil. These two tasks, especially the somewhat
haphazard sprinkling of the spores, were hard and messy work. Most of the
spores would land on the soil; a significant amount would not. These tasks in
the mushroom farm have long reminded me of Jesus’ parable of the sower.
Certainly as mushroom farmers we were unafraid of making a mess or of some of
the “seed” (or spores) missing the soil on the growing beds. The same must be
true of the evangelist; the sower of the seed that is God’s Word; the Good News
of Jesus Christ.
We as evangelists; as both sowers and
good soil, are invited to trust that, even as we experience weakness; as we
experience our own sin; as we experience lack of reception of the Word we sow;
as we make the occasional mess, most of the seed we sow will, by God’s grace,
find fertile soil; faithful hearts in which it will multiply and spread.
St. Kateri Tekakwitha, patroness of our
parish whose feast we celebrate today, is an example of trusting in God as she
evangelized her own Native American people. In response to her own frailty; her
(and our) own disposition to sin, St. Kateri lived a life of penance. But she
did not allow her experiences of frailty; of poor physical health for much of
her life; of often sluggish reception of the Christian faith among her own
people to inhibit her from sowing the seed of the Word of God. And so, as we
have prayed in our opening prayer of this celebration, we recognize St. Kateri
as one who “gathered” many “into [the] Church from every nation, tribe, and
tongue.”
Our calling is the same now as for St.
Kateri centuries ago: To gather together a people “from every nation, tribe,
and tongue” who will “magnify [God] in a single canticle of praise.” Our
calling is to be at once the “good soil” and good sowers after our Lord Jesus
Christ. Imagine if we become the evangelists; the “good soil” and good sowers
whom Jesus invites us to be, how quickly we will be able to spread the Word;
the Good News of God! We will be able to echo the words of Jesus, of our Gospel
reading, in the ears of people who will hear the Gospel and see it in action
for the first time; people near and far: “Blessed are your eyes, because they
see, and your ears, because they hear.”
These are the words Jesus speaks to us
today. These are words and actions exemplified by St. Kateri and the communion
of saints who raise our prayers to God. These
are words and actions that we, a people blessed and gifted with the Word of God
are invited to practice and speak to those around us; to a world continuously in
need of the Good News of Jesus Christ. And the same Jesus Christ promises us
that, if we sow the seed of God’s Word while remaining fertile soil for God’s
Word ourselves; if we trust God to strengthen us in our sowing, our efforts
will bear fruit beyond our imagining.
