GOSPEL POWER l SEPTEMBER 18, 2021  l SATURDAY

24th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Lk 8:4-15 

4 When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came  to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed; and  as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the  birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up,  it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some fell among thorns, and the  thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 Some fell into good soil, and when  it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out,  “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He  said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of  God; but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not  perceive, and listening they may not understand.’ 11“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12The  ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and  takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe  and be saved. 13The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear  the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only  for a while and in a time of testing fall away. 14As for what fell among  the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way,  they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and  their fruit does not mature. 15But as for that in the good soil, these are  the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and  good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” 

A parable is like a riddle whose meaning is not  immediately accessible to its hearers. But as we hear the  parable of the sower proclaimed today, we can appreciate the  resourcefulness of the disciples, if not for whom, we will not have the  explanation of Jesus. Their gesture of approaching Jesus and humbly  expressing their inability to grasp the parable’s meaning actually  shows us the first step that we too must take to become good soil that  yields a bountiful harvest. The meaning of the word is revealed to us  as we seek to encounter the Word-in-person. Hearing the Scripture  proclaimed is not enough. What we have heard must be brought to  prayer where the Lord will fulfill his promise to send his Spirit, the  interior Teacher, who alone can reveal to us the meaning of the word.  Becoming a good hearer of the word goes with becoming a fervently  praying person. 

Lord Jesus, in prayer, transform the arid soil of our heart into fertile  ground, receptive and hospitable to the seed of God’s word. Amen.