Which soil are you?

APROFESSOR in a college English class said to his students, “If you will just take a new word and use it 100 times, it will be yours forever.” Whereupon, a young woman in the class looked dreamily out of the window and sighed, “Piolo, Piolo, Piolo .... ”

* * * Jesus’ parables have been told and retold so that his teachings “will be yours forever”--and not in order to win a partner! One such parable is that of the sower which is the subject of this 15th Sunday’s gospel (Mt 13,1-23).

* * * In the parable, Jesus is the sower; the seed, the word of God or his teachings. The soil symbolizes the various types of people who hear and give responses to God’s word.

* * * The people who received the seed on the WAYSIDE refer to those who allow the devil to take the word of God out of their hearts. For instance, they give in to the thoughts that there is no God or that they can do evil acts as long as they don’t get caught. * * * Those who received the seed on ROCKY ground refers to those who welcome it with great joy and enthusiasm. But having no depth, they fizzle out–a case of “ningas cogon.”

These people start enthusiastically, say, in renewal seminars or various organizations, but then drop out.

* * * The THORNY soil refers to people who hear the word of God but the cares, worries, and pleasures of the world choke the sprouting seedling.

These refer to people who are so busy and preoccupied with work and recreation that other important things, like prayer and Mass going, get crowded out.

* * * Obviously this is not to spurn material pursuits and wholesome recreation but human life should not exclude the spiritual. Remember Christ’s words: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but suffers the loss of his soul” (Mt. 16,26).

* * * Finally there is the GOOD soil. It symbolizes those who’re receptive to God’s word and respond by applying it in day-to-day life, thus bearing fruit thirty-fold, sixty-fold, a hundred-fold of good deeds. * * * In one of my programs at DZMM teleradyo, a guest related the unfortunate hold-up incident of his son. At knife point, the hold-up that he give his cell phone and cash. When he resisted, he stabbed him and fled with the loot.

* * * When the father saw his son fighting for life in the ICU, he vowed to have the hold-upper “salvaged” or summarily killed. However, when the man was apprehended, he relented. The main reason was he belonged to a Catholic renewal community and something told him deep within that he should not take the law into his own hands. Fortunately, the son recovered and got well.

* * * He forgave the hold-upper but the corresponding punishment was meted out in court. This is one concrete instance where Christ’s teaching of forgiveness is applied although it was very difficult for the father to do. He was receptive to God’s word and applied it. * * * Which soil are you—the wayside, the rocky, the thorny, or the fertile? God wants us to be the fertile soil productive in good deeds.

* * * FAMILY TV MASS — aired on IBC 13 (channel 15 cable) at 7-8 a.m. every Sunday; also on international GMA Pinoy TV.

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