"The Good Earth" - Homily for the Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

All three of our readings today invite us to explore creation, and specifically the earth, the fertile soil, as an image of the spiritual life. I want to walk through the Gospel images first, and then I want to briefly address a few implications that arise from using these nature images.

First, the Gospel and the First Reading: In the First reading we hear from the prophet Isaiah that the Word of God is like the rain and snow that “water the earth and make it fertile and fruitful.” The rain and snow fall from the sky and bear fruit in the plants they nourish. And so too the Word of God, that “goes forth from God’s mouth” always achieves the end, bears the fruit that God intends for it to achieve.

And of course we know well that Jesus Christ is Himself the Word of God. Jesus is the Word made flesh, spoken by the Father to the world – and He accomplishes the mission the Father sends Him for.

In the Gospel Jesus uses similar nature imagery. He Himself explains the sower, seed, and soil images that He uses. The seed represents the Word of God, symbolizes Jesus Himself, sowed by the Father in the soil of human hearts. So if we ourselves are the soil, we need to give extra attention to the types of soil in this parable.

First, there were seeds sown on a path – and birds came and ate it. Jesus explains that this is like the one who hears the Word of God and doesn’t understand it. The Evil One comes and steals away what was sown in their heart.

Not long ago, a young family was walking by the Church and saw me standing outside. The father asked if they could come in and see the place, because his son had asked him what this big building was all about. So they came in and I gave them a brief tour.

But as I was showing them around, and explaining things to the kids, it became clear to me that they had no idea who Jesus even was – these children had never even heard any of the stories from the Scriptures that we see depicted in our churches.

Now we can all be amazed at that because we’ve heard the stories of the Scriptures and could give a general outline of Jesus’ life. But how well do we really understand our own faith and how good of a job do we really do explaining these things to our children and passing on the faith to them? Studies seem to indicate that American Catholics don’t really know the basic tenants of their own faith and so they basically think that all faiths are about the same in the end.

We all need to be prepared in order to understand the Scripture, the Word of God that we receive. We need to be educated and formed, given a context in which to make sense of Christian discipleship and to understand the priority of Jesus Christ and the Church He founded. Without understanding of meaning there is no depth to our faith and the seed that is planted within us is too easily plucked away by the Evil One.

Do we read the Scriptures as part of our personal prayer, or do we only hear them once a week at Mass? Do we find ways of learning about the faith, such as reading a Catholic magazine, or coming to a Generations of Faith session? Are we able to explain the faith to our children and if we can’t, do we search out the answers with them?

Without seeking some source of understanding, we risk losing our own faith and risk being unable to pass that gift onto our children.

Then there is the seed sown on rocky ground – it sprang up, but because it had no roots the sun scorched it. Jesus explains that this represents the one who hears the Word and receives it with joy, but because they have no roots, tribulations and persecutions easily pull them away.

We all know, from our own childhood and from our children, that we can often become wildly, intensely interested in something only to drop it for something else as soon as the newness and attraction wear off. We get all excited to learn the guitar, or read War and Peace, or whatever – but then . . .

Similarly, we’ve all known people who have had some profound experience of the spiritual life – some intense experience of God; or who have been intrigued by some charismatic preacher and have come to faith in Jesus. But then, lacking any discipline, lacking any sense of the tradition, and lacking perseverance, when some difficulty comes, the excitement and interest fades.

Anything we take seriously – any relationship, or job, or sport, or hobby we take seriously requires a measure of discipline, perseverance, and practice. Just so, if we take faith seriously it needs to be practiced with discipline and a certain amount of rigor.

Do we submit ourselves to the rigors that faith requires? Do we attend Mass every week, or only when it is convenient to our schedule? Do we make time for regular private prayer and for acts of charity even though our days are already busy?

Without discipline we risk having a faith without roots that could too easily be torn out and blown away when some storm of difficulty or loss comes our way.

Finally there is the seed sown among thorns – and the thorns grew up and choked it. Jesus explains that this represents the one who hears the Word but then worldly anxieties and the lure of riches choke the Word and it bears no fruit.

Those of you who have a garden know that you just don’t plant things willy-nilly. There are certain plants that will grow well near one another – there are other plants, invasive species, that will simply overtake a garden or yard. So you have to make a choice and prioritize: what are you growing this year, and where, and everything else either needs to grow someplace else or be treated like a weed and torn out.

We need to prioritize the Word of God in that same way. How much time do we spend worrying about things like the shopping list, and bills, and auto repair, and work? Now it’s not that we shouldn’t think about those things. But we should ask ourselves this: how much time do we spend thinking about the Word of God?

If these other things have taken over all of our thinking, if the only time we spend thinking about the Word of God is on Sunday morning, then we risk having our faith choked to death by all of the other worldly things that we give more time to. We need, rather, to put the seed of faith first, and have everything else in the garden of our lives revolve around it.

So, the lesson that these three types of soil makes clear to us that if we are to be the rich soil in which the seed of the Word bears good fruit thirty, sixty or a hundred fold, we must (1) put the Word of God first in our lives, (2) we must seek to understand the faith we have been given, and (3) we must have discipline and perseverance in our practice of the faith.

Okay, we’ve explored some of the depths of these nature metaphors in which Christ is the seed, and we are the soil of the earth. Briefly, in conclusion, I want to point out an implication of this sort of image that has resonances in today’s second reading.

If in these metaphors we are the soil of the earth, planted with the Word of God, watered by God’s grace, intended to bear a fruitful harvest, then humanity and earth are uniquely joined in the plan of creation. 

St. Paul makes exactly this case, in his Letter to the Romans. He says that “creation was made subject to futility” and that “all creation is groaning in labor pains . . . eager with expectation awaiting the revelation of the children of God.”

That creation was made “subject to futility” means that all creation was kept from fulfilling its intended purpose: creation suffered with humanity because of the Fall. But, that also means that with humanity all creation is also redeemed by Christ! With us, creation longs for the coming of the fullness of the kingdom, and the sufferings that creation and humanity endures are like labor pains: they will give birth to a joyful new reality that overshadows any previous suffering.

This is the true foundation of a Christian environmentalism: an environmentalism that does not see humanity as a parasite, and does not place creation above the dignity of human life . . . but one that sees humanity and creation as deeply connected in suffering and in redemption, and invites men and women to be stewards of all creation.

If we want to see the Word of God planted and bearing fruit in the world – if we long for God’s harvest of justice, then we will first tend the soil of our own hearts and see that God’s Word can grow there. Then, in turn, we will come to understand concern for the environment as part and parcel of our response to that Word bearing fruit within us.

(The structure of this homily is based on a homily by Father Robert Barron.  The conclusion is influenced by the writing of Sr. Diane Bergant, C.S.A.)