Gospel Reflection For Sunday 16th July 2023

15th Sunday Ordinary Time – by Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday July 16th 2023

“Hey, did you hear the one about…..” or “that reminds me of the two men going into a pub….”!

All of us know people who have the knack of telling jokes so that when the punchline comes everyone laughs. Maybe you are one of those people? I’m not, but I definitely envy those who are.

Storytelling is another skill I lack and also one I often wish I had. As a priest and Minister of the Word of God I have listened to those who can weave a message into a story such that those listening are held in rapt attention, hanging on every word spoken and when the story is finished the message is crystal clear and easily remembered.

The art of comedy and storytelling, I’m told, is the ability to ‘read’ an audience, pitching the words and images in such a way that they are easily understood by those listening. Timing, of course, is paramount, as I know only too well when every joke or story I try to tell falls flat on its face and is greeted with either an embarrassed silence or polite titters.

Jesus was a storyteller par excellence. Most of his teaching was done through parables – simple, easily understood stories with spiritual messages. Holding the interest of an audience in the days before PowerPoint, YouTube, and data projectors was no easy task, yet Jesus, without props or amplification managed it again and again. Even today parables like the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the parable of the Sower can be called to mind and understood just as easily as Cinderella, Snow White or Hansel and Gretel.

Today’s Gospel allows us to hear again the Parable of the Sower, enabling us maybe to delve into our childhood, calling to mind pictures and images of the lonely Sower scattering handfuls of seed in a dry, arid field, or maybe we remember some enthusiastic young teacher telling us in graphic detail how difficult it is to get into Heaven because the devil is constantly at our shoulder urging us to be naughty and bad.

It is a wonderfully crafted story, tailored to a poor, rural audience where the difficulties of getting a crop to grow in dry, barren, infertile soil was an experience shared by most of those listening. How easily they would have nodded, identifying with the image of parched soil and brown, dead wheat, or the agony of finding their hard work thwarted by thorns and weeds.

Unless we come from a farming background ourselves, we can only understand this parable in a sterile, academic way. Sure, the message is clear to us but at an emotional level the work of the Sower and the heartbreak of losing his crop is lost to us.

So what, I asked myself, might we modern, tech savvy, urban dwellers use instead of seed, thorns, drought and rocks to properly experience what Jesus was telling us?

In the days of Jesus the seed was carried in an open bag tied around the waist and then simply thrown to both sides as the farmer walked the field. Is there anything similar in our lives?

And then it struck me that there is something all of us have in our possession, something we sow and reap every day of our lives… words! What if we imagine that the bag of countless seeds carried by the Sower is the vocabulary of countless words we cast about us every day?

From the moment we wake up every morning to the moment we fall asleep at night each one of us is throwing about us hundreds of thousands of words. Imagine it…. the simple greetings we offer as we hurry to get ready for school or work, the casual conversations we have with colleagues and friends during the day, the professional and formal discourse we use when working, the language we use with our partners, children, parents and loved ones…… bags full of words, scattered about every time we open our mouth.

And what about all those other words we use….. the twitter, Facebook, TikTok, email, and ‘texting’ words we send flying through cyberspace before we get out of bed in the morning or long after we go to bed each night. More sacks of seed, almost limitless, just waiting to be hurled by us across the field of our lives.

Like the Sower in the parable, we own the words we use. They are ‘our’ words and each one of them will grow and flourish and provide food to sustain us or will lie useless on the ground, withering and dying, tangled by weeds and  of no value to anyone.

The livelihood of the Sower, his ability to sustain himself and his family, depends on how carefully he casts his seed through the field. His awareness of soil, weather, colour and texture will tell him where to throw and not throw his seed. As he walks through the field, casting his seed around him, he has the power within his own hands to feed and bring comfort to himself and his family or, through carelessness or thoughtlessness, cast his seed where it cannot grow and where it will bring only hunger and sorrow to his family.

As we walk through the field of each day, each word we say or write has the power to give life or to stagnate and destroy life. Our words give us an awesome and frightening power which we can choose to use for good or bad, for life-giving or life-taking.

“The pen is mightier than the sword” is a saying we have all heard, and which is so much truer than we might ever imagine.

It was not the SS soldiers, or the prison guards at Auschwitz, or guns, tanks and bullets that killed six million Jews in World War II and brought destruction to so much of Europe. No, it was the words of Hitler, words of hatred and insanity, thrown to weak and insecure people which brought so much darkness to our world.

Nor is it accidental that in every revolution it is the Universities which are first targeted, and it is the free press and the educated who are first silenced. Those who wish to sow violence and anarchy fear the power of words more than they fear guns or bombs.

The seeds scattered by the Sower are tiny and seem insignificant as they fall on the ground. But scattered carefully, by a Sower who knows the power he has in his hands, that seed will become a harvest bringing wealth and life to the Sower’s family and community.

The words we use each day can seem tiny and insignificant too. Without thought we can hurl them about us, not caring where they fall or if they will grow. But used carefully, by a person who knows the power each word possesses to build-up or destroy, the words will become a harvest of peace, joy, forgiveness and gentleness.

It is so easy to scoff at that and to say “nonsense!” but think about it. It is powerfully and awesomely true.

Hold a simple, single seed in one hand and a simple, single word in the other. Both look useless and valueless.

But three months later, with fertile soil, water, and sun there will be field of bright, waving, golden heads of wheat or corn. Words, used carefully and sensitively, will, in even less time, lead to a family, work place, community of peace, joy, and happiness.

If anybody still doubts this just think about the incredibly awful, horrific, true stories of smiling and happy teenagers who take their own lives because of bullying – face-to-face and on-line bullying. The perpetrators will say, “…but they’re only words!” and they are ‘only words’, words which can kill and destroy if not sown carefully and with thought.

In every parable Jesus invites us to find our own message and interpretation. Each interpretation is valid if it leads to life and growth.

I’ve never scattered seed or seen a crop destroyed by weeds, drought or badly prepared soil.

But I do scatter words around me constantly. This Gospel invites me to think about these words and the power they have to build up or tear down. Used thoughtfully and with care, my words can bring life, and hope and a smile to people’s lives.

This is what the Sower wants when he goes into his field.

It is also what Jesus wants when we open out mouth to speak!

Many thanks,

Brian

If you have any comments, questions or thoughts on this scripture reflection, please feel welcome to email me at b.maher@oblates.ie

A sower went out to sow

The Gospel of the Lord.