Our parable today has so much to offer for our reflection, but it may be worth approaching it through the lens of a current trend to try and change or reinterpret Scripture or Church teaching to be harmonious with “the times,” or to adapt it to be more palatable to modern audiences.
But the word of God is eternal and unchanging, and the Truth is the Truth: “I am…the truth…” (John 14:6) Jesus says. Does Jesus change?
Notice in our Gospel that the seed the sower is sowing is the word, and notice that the fruitfulness of the seed is not dependent upon the seed itself but on the quality and receptivity of the soil. When the sower notices that the seed on the path was eaten up, or the seed on the rocky soil grew quickly and died, he does not try sowing a different seed. Rather, any sower worth his salt would pick up the stones in the soil, would pull weeds, would plow and fertilize and prepare the soil for receiving the seed. The seed is not the problem: the soil is.
When we are frustrated with how many of our brothers and sisters are turning away from the faith, from the Church, from the Word of God, trying to adapt Church teaching and Scripture to be more “palatable” is a temptation: it is a seemingly easy solution that falls into the worldly strategies of marketing and the like. But the problem is not with the Word of God nor the teaching of the Church: the challenge is the hearts for which the Word of God is intended. How, then, do we as sowers of the word best labor to prepare that soil?
By first examining our own little patch of earth within us. As we reflect on today’s Gospel we might do well to take stock of our own hearts: is my heart as hard as the trodden path, or full of stones and shallow, or choked with competing concerns, loves, and attachments, or is it rich and clear? When God’s Word falls upon my heart, is it fruitful?