Sowing with reckless abandonment

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A

Familiarity with the parables often takes the edge out of the narrative and we end up with a sedated explanation. But try examining this parable through the eyes of a seasoned farmer and you will discover something exceedingly shocking.

People who live day-to-day, who practice subsistence farming as a matter of survival, would have treated seed with great care and caution. Seed was precious, expensive and not to be wasted. A good farmer does not throw seed recklessly on hard-packed trails and into beds of weeds with no apparent concern for where it lands. No sane farmer in Jesus’ day or our day would treat seed this way.

But this is not the picture we get when we watch the sower in this parable. He is not careful. He is not meticulous. He is not cautious. He is radically and irresponsibly reckless. This guy just throws seed everywhere!

Most homilies, explanations and even our Lord’s own explanation focus on the kinds of soil. It is a powerful picture of different hearts, real people, who are open or closed to the gospel. But it is also necessary to focus on the reckless, irresponsible, out-of-control farmer who throws seed on paths, in the weeds, in shallow and deep soil . . . everywhere! To a regular farmer, this sower is absolutely incompetent and should never be allowed to come close to any farmland. But for Christians who see this as a parable of how the Word of God is shared, this sower is beautiful, bold, fearless, and generous.

The parable shows us a God who showers His graces generously and indiscriminately. Indeed, “He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45). God sows with cheerful abandon. Therefore, God is not to be faulted for favouring some over others. His seed falls on different soils as His Word is shared with different hearts. The reception of the Word of God makes one fruitful. Reception does not depend upon God, the sower nor on the seed; it depends upon our decision. We are the kind of soil we choose to be.

Likewise, we too are called to imitate this seemingly reckless but truly generous sower, in how we share the gospel with others. The projected outcome, the likelihood of success, should not be the sole consideration that would limit our outreach and focus. Often, we are tempted to focus only on preaching to the choir, to the converted, knowing that our message would be well received. Common sense will tell you: don’t waste your time and effort with those who are obstinate and who refuse to listen. In fact, you may even come across as annoying and nagging. But we fail to recognise that it is those who are seemingly hardened of heart that needs the liberating message of the gospel more than others, because it is the sick who requires a physician, not the healthy.

We must not be stingy or overcautious with the sharing of the Word. Ultimately, we must learn to trust the efficacy of the Word and the Power of God to make His message take root in the heart soils of our audience and bear fruit. As St Paul reminds us, “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow” (1 Cor 3:6). So sow! Sow generously! Sow with abandonment and hold nothing back! You will never know that where you have sown, the Word will produce a rich harvest, “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Listen, anyone who has ears.”