A meditation preached by Fr. Eric Nicolai at a retreat for priests at the Manoir de Beaujeu, near Montreal.

Matt 13:1-9:: That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.  Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.  Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.  As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.  But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

We are both soil, ground where the seed arrives, but also sowers ourselves, with the great responsibility of ensuring that the seed takes root, that what we sow with our ministry, with our example, with our good humour and our life, takes root in souls. People look up to us. If there has been loss of prestige and moral standing among priests it is because some had been bad sowers, but also because the seed of God’s word never took root in their soul. It fell but for different reasons didn’t grow, or died.

Thumbnail: Jean-Francois Millet 1854 The Sower. Boston Museum.

Music: Bert Alink, Mossy Garden.