Friday Gospel Recharge
A Reflection on Matthew 13: 13-28
(Friday Week 16, Year A of the Liturgical Calendar, 2023)
The Good Seed
In this Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 18-23), Jesus speaks about the Seeds of the Word sown in all, and how absorbing this knowledge can be difficult to understand also.
Understanding knowledge of God is something different from knowledge of the operation of the universe. Knowing God requires God infusing in us his own knowledge; this kind of knowledge cannot be possessed through rational enquiry. This does not mean faith and reason don't speak to each other, but that knowledge of faith is something handed to us by God and not from laboratory experiments in trial and error. It has to be given to us by God because it is knowledge of God himself and not the world.
Also in this Gospel we learn of a particular creature ready to snatch and corrupt our understanding of the Seed which God gives to us. We must remember here that the seed is knowledge of God a truth undiscoverable through natural enquiry. This creature as we read is the devil. The devil is a real being, he is not some abstract idea which the world and new age thinking would have us think. The reason why the devil acts in this manner is because he desperately wants to take away from us the joy that has been denied to him: beatitude with God. He is so jealous of us that he pursues us endlessly until our last breath, until he knows completely that he has won us over to desire and dwell in darkness rather than in the light. It also seems though in this Gospel that the devil is more successful at his work upon those individuals who lack strong faith-based foundations and are less receptive to accepting God’s words. These people are characterised as folks found on the edges of the path, patches of rocks, and in thorns. We notice that a person who has good soil takes up the seed and lets it grow within and flourish in his existence.
Jesus wants nothing more than for us to respond to his Word like the seed sown in good soil. When we a responsive to the Word of God, it enables us to flourish in our own lives. His words are so powerful that it not only acts as a guide from right from wrong, but also strengthens us to withstand the elements of the world, whatever that might be: false ideologies, saying no to injustices nor participating in it, warding off evil from overcoming us; the seed which yields in abundance also enable others to witness by our own lives the goodness of God's existence at work within us. While Jesus wants his Word to take root and dominate our lives, he is completely aware that his seeds of truth will not take root and flourish in every person's life. Whatever the circumstances might be, some either reject or conditionally accept Jesus but because of their partial commitment they fall away.
However, it's also good to point out that although God's word is scattered amongst good soil or not, we can all go through the phases of being on the edge of the path, in the thorns or in good soil; we oscillate between the two throughout our lives or even throughout the day, but ideally, we are to remain sturdy as good soil so that we can yield a harvest that is a hundredfold for the Lord.
• Where do you identify yourself now: are you on the path, in the thorns, or in good soil?
• What will you do about it?
• What changes are you going to make so that God's seeds of truth might take effect in you and make disciples in other people?
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