Today we begin several Sundays when our Gospels will be Jesus’ parables or teaching stories. Most of us are not farmers, but we’ve possibly planted grass seed at some point. Today’s parable is about a “sower” who is casting seeds, and the seeds fall on different kinds of ground. And guess what: Three-fourths of the seed fails! This is both a realistic parable and a reassuring one. It’s realistic because life is like that. At least three-fourths of us are not geniuses or star athletes or famous personalities. Moreover, in our lives, not everything we expect will work out well actually does. We also continually put our hopes in other things, like our descendants, or our government, or in a sports team, or our Church, and the harvest we get is a disappointment. But this is a parable about God the sower, planting his kingdom in the soil of human history.
The Divine Sower defines success by what gets produced, despite the great loss. And even within that picture of limited success, the sower does not seem disappointed that some seed produces more than other seed. We live in a world with seemingly intractable problems. It is easy to become discouraged, when it seems that we will never really see peace, or the mitigation of the climate crisis, or … . In fact, some religious people believe that God’s kingdom will only come when the world ends (apocalypticism). But this parable doesn’t say that. It is showing us how God works in the universe. In a universe where loss, death, is always happening (entropy), God waits, and God accepts reverses but keeps inspiring good seed to grow. This Scripture points to a God whose creative power cannot be denied. As our Epistle today says, all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but … we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8: 22-23). God will accomplish bringing goodness, truth and beauty from the turbulence of creation. But it will be an uneven bringing forth, a slow bringing forth, and an advance that happens despite failure. When we feel discouraged because of how things turn out, perhaps this Scripture can offer a different perspective!
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post July 12, 15th Sunday in Ordinary time, Success: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.