Love Given Is Never Lost.

Fifteenth Sunday in OT  A  2020

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus shares the parable of the sower and the seed and the four different types of soil that receives the seed.  Jesus is the sower and the seed is the Word of God.  Sometimes this seed is thrown on the path; sometimes on rocky ground; sometimes the seed is choked among thorns; and then about 25 % of the time the seed falls on rich soil and bears fruit a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. 

We can imagine Jesus telling this parable in response to the disciples’ complaints, “We’re wasting our time”. “No one’s listening”.  The Gospel message is too demanding.

Maybe some parents can identify with the grumbling of the first disciples.  What about the experience of many parents who poured out all their love and faith into their children, taught them the Catholic faith, sent them to religious education classes or to Catholic schools, only to have them, as adults, leave our Church and go elsewhere.

Maybe the message of Jesus to the first disciples applies to us as well.  Jesus points to a sower sowing seed in a nearby field and answers them, “Let’s learn from him we that we have to continue sowing.”

When it comes to facing failures in life, the farmer in today’s gospel parable sounds a lot like many of us.  We work hard, and only sometimes succeed.  Most of what we want to plant in the lives of those around us doesn’t “take”; it doesn’t become rooted and permanently planted in their lives.

All of us must deal with failure, those areas where the best we’re given to others comes up lacking, falling short of our hopes, our dreams, and our great expectations.

Jesus himself knew the pain of failure:

·        He was born and raised in Nazareth and his hometown folks rejected Him.

·        His handpicked twelve apostles?  Well, one of them sold Him out for 30 pieces of silver and the others fled when he was crucified.

·        Peter wasn’t too swift to take His message to heart, Thomas was the doubter, and the others weren’t much better either.

Up to this point the homily sounds terribly dismal and discouraging.  But my message today is that we need to remember that Jesus did not let apparent failure stop him.  In His parable, Jesus went on to speak about a crop that yielded a harvest in successful amounts, some yields bringing spectacular results.  Today’s Gospel is not a dirge -- it is a celebration; it is a story of hope, not of despair.

It's amazing to see the sower – apparently how free and generous of spirit he is –  is not overly concerned that some of the seed will not produce crop but he continues to sow, trusting that eventually his seed will bear abundant fruit.

We can easily look at the big picture and say our world is a mess now.  Covid-19 has ravaged our entire planet.  We are hurting but we need to see that there is also an amazing amount of goodness in the lives of so many people.

Examples of the seed of God’s word falling on good soil:

·        On Friday afternoon here at St. joseph’s I presided over the wedding of Heidi Kelleher and John Costello.  They began their married life at the altar of God asking God’s blessing on their life together.

·        On Saturday morning, we celebrated a First Communion Mass for 18 of our First Communicants.  For our First Communicants and their families, this is the day the Lord has made and let us be glad and rejoice in it.

·        At our 10:00 Mass this morning, we are welcoming our RCIA candidates into the fullness of the sacramental life of the Church.  Our faith community rejoices in the beautiful journey of faith of our RCIA candidates.

The Gospel message calls to reflect on a profound Gospel message:   LOVE GIVEN IS NEVER LOST.   Part of life is trial and effort.  Jesus’ attitude was the same.  He threw our love like the sower throws out the seed.  He knows it may fall on hard ground, but he gives it anyway.  He gave love on Calvary to everyone.   God is like that.   The seed of our love may take years to flower but give it away.  In the words:  Do not be afraid.  Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Love given is never lost.

What about ourselves?  What kind of soil are we in receiving the Word of God into our hearts?  What are our demons, temptations, our sinfulness that keep the Word of God from being more deeply rooted in our hearts?  What are the areas of our lives in which Jesus is not yet Lord?

In these days of the coronavirus, we can easily be overwhelmed by the anxiety, the uncertainty, the stress of finding our way in the midst of this pandemic.

As a way of focusing our spiritual faith journey, may I suggest five simple seeds that the Gospel wishes to implant in the good soil of our hearts:

            God’s love is a gift.

             God loves changes us,

            God’s love is always with us.

            God’s love saves us.

            God’s love is to be shared.

Before our shortcomings get the best of us, it is comforting to know that there are millions of saints in heaven today, enjoying eternal happiness, who had some, of not all, of our present failings.  We, too, can be with them one day if we do what they did.  They humbly entrusted themselves to the forgiveness of our all loving God.  Please God, they and we are God’s forgiven sinners.

As we now transition into the Liturgy of the Eucharist, may we ask for the grace of letting the seeds that come God be rooted in the soil of our hearts.

We so need to be the good soil to receive God’s Word and God’s love within us.

 Again, five simple seeds of God’s grace that are abundantly given to us:

God’s love is a gift.

God’s love changes us.

God’s love is always with us.

God’s love saves us.

God’s love is to be shared.

Have a Blessed Day.