The Parable of the Sower

Continuing Fouard's Life of Christ:

The Parable of the Sower

Matt. xiii. 3-23.

The sower. J-J Tissot.

"Listen!" Said Jesus, stretching out His hands toward those familiar shores of Genesareth.  "The Sower went out to sow, and while he was sowing some grains fell into the roadway, and the birds of the sky lighted and consume them; other some fell upon stony ground, where there was not much earth, and it sprung up immediately, because it had no depth of soil; but when the sun was up it was scorched, and as it had no roots it withered away; still others fell among thistles, and the thistles grew up and choked them; others, finally, fell in good earth and bore fruit, sum a hundred, others sixty, and others thirty fold.  He who has ears to hear let him hear!"

There He stopped, leaving His listeners to fathom the meaning hidden beneath the Parable.  There was nothing to help them to an understanding of it; it remained a riddle not only to the Jews who were strangers to His doctrine, but even to the Twelve as well.  Though the latter pressed about Him, and upon their asking why a He spoke in this way, Jesus at once explained His conduct.  If He concealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of God under the form of an allegory, it was only that His enemies might "behold without perceiving, right here without understanding," and thus, aided by this security, He might, as we have said before, gain the necessary time for the development of His doctrine, which was to make out of these lowly disciples a Holy Church, the Household of the most Highly God.  The same truths were delivered to every hearer of His Parables, but they were not fully revealed to any hearts which were not docile enough to beg more light of the Master Himself.  As for the mass of the Jews, the Oracle uttered long since by Isaias was now fulfilled in them, "You shall hear with your ears, and you shall not understand; you shall behold with your eyes, and you shall not see.  For the heart of these people is waxed gross; they have grown dull of hearing, they have shut their eyes, in such ways that they may no longer either see or hear or understand in their hearts; neither can they be converted nor be healed."

"But as for you," continued Jesus, "blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear.  In very truth, I tell you, many Prophets and just men have desired to see what you are seeing and have not seen it, and to hearken to what you are hearing and have not heard it.  Therefore listen to the Parable of the Sower." But the minds of the Apostles were not yet sufficiently clear-sighted to grasp the meaning of this allegory; and for the moment Jesus was amazed at their blindness.

"Do you not understand this Parable?  How, then, will you be able to understand all the rest?" However, He took pity upon their weakness, and expounded His own words.  The Church is a vast Field, through which Jesus walks scattering the grain from an unstinting hand; for the gifts of God are without measure.  The seed falls everywhere in an equally generous shower, — upon hearts as cold and hardened as those worn, beaten pathways, which offer it no resting-place or nourishment; upon light and superficial souls, wherein the strength of the seed, spending itself in a sudden show of growth, sends down no deep roots, and so withers beneath the first window of temptation; upon the creatures of worldliness, who no sooner receive the gift of grace than they proceed to stifle it" beneath the weight of earthly cares and the deceitfulness of riches."But those true followers of Him are "the good ground, they who hearken to the Word, who receive it, and bring forth fruit bearing thirty, sixty, and an hundred fold." Such was the first rough draft of the Church drawn by the hand of the Master Architect,— a Field wherein the heavenly seed is sown with exceeding plentifulness, and yet it will bear no fruit if so be that man's evil passions place an obstacle in its wake.

Jesus dwelt more strongly still upon this last point by showing what perfect freedom of action He would bestow upon His earthly Heritage, the Church.  He likened it to a land which, being once oversown, "produces its fruit of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the grain enclosed in the ear.  And when it has borne its full crop, immediately they put sickle to it, because it is now the time of harvest." What matters it whether the workmen sleeps or watches, will not the harvest still come round?  The grain takes root of itself, and grows up while he is dreaming; when once the soil is planted, there is no need of him until the time of reaping is come.  In like manner the Saviour has dealt with the Kingdom of Heaven in our hearts.  He came to sow, but He need never more return until the end of Time, — until the harvesting is come.

Totus tuus ego sum 

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam