Deuteronomy 7:7-11
Isaiah 30:18-26
2Thessalonians 2:15-3:3
Mathew 13:1-9, 18-23
Today, in the second Sunday of the season of Elijah Cross and Moses, God tells us “do your duty well, I will produce the fruit.” Church gives us this message that “preach the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ without looking to the fruit.” It is Christ who commanded us to preach the Gospel to the ends of the world. So by the very sacrament of Baptism all the Christians are called to preach the Gospel to the world. We are missionaries by pour very nature and we are living in the missionary church. So preaching and teaching of the Word of God is entrusted to us, Christians. So today church tell us about the attitude which we should possess in our mission work and our preaching.
In the Gospel of St. Mathew chapter 13: 1-9, we can see the parable of the sower. And the interpretation of the parable in verses 18-23. We have reflected upon this passage many times. So it is about the Word of God and how it produce fruit in each one’s life. That I like to look at this parable from a different perspective. From the perspective of the Sower himself. What is the specialty of this sower? Unlike other sowers the sower in this parable is not a good sower. Because this sower goes for sowing the seeds without any proper preparation. The parable starts like this “a sower went out to sow”, as if he gets up he goes for sowing.
When we evaluate ordinary farmers, we can find that when they go for sowing the very first thing they do is that they evaluate the ground; whether it is good for sowing? Is it a fertile ground? Whether there is enough water in the ground? Is there enough soil for the plant to come up? After evaluating the ground they will prepare the ground; they take away the old thons and weeds from the land and his spades they prepare the ground. Only then they will go for sowing. But when they go for sowing too they will be more careful in selecting the seeds. After selecting the good seeds they will go for sowing. They will be carefully sow the seed in the ground which they have prepared. They will not allow the seed to let it drop in the path, or among the thons or in the rocky ground. They will sow all the seeds very carefully and place them in good soil so that they can get 100% result from the seeds.
But in this parable the sower is very different form an ordinary sower. When we compare him with ordinary sowers we can say that he is a poor sower. He has no proper planning. He doesn’t know how to sow the seeds. He is a lazy and careless sower. If this sower is such a careless, lazy and unknown person why did Jesus accuse the plants for not producing the fruit? Is it the problem of the sower or of the pant that they were fell among thons, or in the path, or on the rocky ground? Here we have to make the difference between an ordinary sower and God, who sows in our heart the seeds of the Word of God. In this parable the sower is God. And he is sowing the seeds of the Word of God. So Jesus wanted to teach us that when we sow the seeds of the Word of God, we should not look the quality of the soil, the situation and circumstances of the places. We have to do our duty. What is then our duty? How can we execute our duty?
Our duty is to sow the seed of the Word of God. We can use any method to sow the seed of the Word of God. We can use preaching, teaching, our good deeds, our homilies on the church and encounter with poor and the rich etc. will help us to plant the word of God in others. But when we sow the seed we should not worry about the result we get from the sowing. That means an ordinary person when he sows concerned about the fruit. But in the case of a Christian when he preaches or teaches he should not be bothered about the result or the fruit. It is God who produce the fruit in other persons. We cannot know that in what manner God works. He can even take the small and bad seed and he can produce 100% from that grain. So our duty is to sow the seed. And God will work wonders from that.
When we come to Deuteronomy chapter 7: 7-11, we get the same message. God tells the Israel that they were not selected as the favorite children of God because of their power and their merit. He loved them and kept his oath not because they showed respect to Him and they were righteousness people before God. But God wanted to show them that even from a small community like the Israel he can perfume wonders. Israel was a small tribe. But they could even defeat the mighty Egyptians. He could save them from the powerful hands of Pharaoh. But naturally if we imagine if we were in the place of Yahweh we would select the powerful Egyptians as our favorite people. Because we would naturally impress the world by this powerful people. They were great people and influential too. But God selected this small tribe, Israel and through them he could make this world understand that he is really powerful. So God’s ways are different from ours. His mode of operation is different. We do the action expecting the fruit, but God makes the fruit from his actions. So as we see in the sower God does not look at the soil, the land, the quality of the seed etc.
In Isaiah 30:18-26, we see that when we preach what should we preach and teach them. Tell them this is our God our Lord. And we have to make them understand that He is the God. Tell them that “this is the way; walk in it.” Our duty is to show them the real God, and show them a path to be followed.
In 2 Thessalonians 2:15-3:3, Paul tells us to pray. Why should we pray? For what cause we have to pray? He says “…pray for us, so that the Word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be glorified everywhere, just us it is among you.” So we can say that it should be our attitude in our preaching and spreading of the Gospel. Pray to God to have effect for our works. We can also wish as St. Paul wished let the word of God spread rapidly. In Thessalonica the gospel spread very rapidly and they came the faith. But in other places there are people who do not understand the Gospel. That is why Paul is telling in this way. So as Paul said we can also think let our preaching produce 100%. But we should not be worried about the fruit alone. Our attitude should be that of the sower. I am a humble servant I did my duty the rest is God’s work. And thank the lord for his graces.
Now let us have a look at our own lives. When our own brothers come to us for some help, we may think that if I do this help to him what I will get. So I don’t do anything. So we do what is beneficial for us. Or when a mentally retarded person comes to our school, we may think, he does not study and he doesn’t understand anything. So let him go in his own way. If I work for them also there is no use. But remember God can produce wonders, He can produce fruits in 30% or even 100%. In our mission work too we face same problem, we don’t see the effect of our work. “I was working for these people more than I have done to my family. But they are still against me. They don’t love me. I am fed up with these persons. Here we look for the effect of our work. Or we look at the fruit of our work. Then we will be discouraged most often. Because we see that there is no result for our effort. Then we may stop our effort. So God tells us “do your duty well, I will produce the fruit.”
So dear friends let us try to do our duty well. Then entrust everything for the providence of God, the Father. He will effect and produce fruit. In this Holy Eucharist let us pray for this grace. May God bless us. Amen.
By Boby Kaiyalakakathu MST
No comments:
Post a Comment