Saturday, Twenty Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

The parable of the sower is to be found in the three Synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke. In today’s gospel reading we have Luke’s version of this parable and its interpretation. His way of expressing the interpretation of the seed that fell on good soil is distinctive, ‘this is the people with a noble and generous heart who have heard the word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance’. We are invited to hear God’s word with a noble and generous heart. There is a great generosity about God’s word because it expresses the generous heart of God. Jesus, God’s Word made flesh, is the fullest expression of God’s generous heart, but every word of God captures some dimension of the generous love of God. The generosity of God’s word is to be responded to with a generous heart on our part. We give ourselves wholeheartedly to God’s word, taking all of it to ourselves. We come before the Lord’s word with an open and generous heart, ready to receive that word on the word’s own terms. In the language of Saint Paul, we endeavour to allow the word of the Lord to find a home within us. We open wide the door of our lives to the Lord’s word, displaying a generous hospitality to it. Having shown a generous hospitality to the Lord’s word, we display the quality of ‘perseverance’. We keep returning to this word of life, continuing to draw life from it, even in those times when we might be tempted to do otherwise. The gospel reading assures us that these qualities of generosity and perseverance towards the Lord’s word will bear a rich harvest, not only in our own lives but in the lives of others.

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