DO YOU WANT TO BE A FARMER?

My first job I worked for a bean farmer in Western, NY. I started in the Spring, so it was planting season. It was my job to load the hoppers of the planter when the operator signaled me. The planter had six hoppers, I had to rip the bag open, lift the 25 lb. bag of seed dumping one bag into each hopper. What made it more challenging is the hoppers were shoulder high.  At the beginning I had a lot of spillage and occasionally, as the day wore on, I would eventually drop an entire bag on the ground.   Today's parable is very real for me because of the hours I spent waiting for the hoppers to run out.   Time to contemplate where the seeds had fallen, especially as I picked them up off the hard packed truck path, so that they could be planted in the fertile soil.  In due season, I got to operate the tractors that cultivated and harvested the fruits of our seasonal labor.

The key word in Jesus’ parable is Hear! (Mk 4:3, 9) this word frames the parable. In the Semitic idiom, to really hear is to obey; the word enters in through the ears and then goes down to the heart, the primary organ of hearing, and we are changed.

Because this is such a well known parable, we know the seed is “the Word”.  So in essence we who share the Word are the farmers and all the hearers of the Word are “seeded” with it.  Their response depends on the state of their heart (the primary organ of hearing), the soil.  Often preachers will focus on "the soil" (the receiver) of the Word.  Let's consider the parable from the farmers (sowers) point of view.   

For some time our faith community has been sowing seeds in our adult and teen catechumens & confirmandi.  I believe how we sow the seeds makes a difference. When confirmation is just something to be done because it’s "that time" the seeds become vulnerable and the birds can easily snatch the seed away.  If the sower’s own faith is shallow or overly intellectualized, their planting may take root but will be challenged to develop the needed roots to survive the scorching sun. And when the sower’s behavior does not match their words the Word may be accepted and grow but the preoccupations and distractions of the world, especially in times of persecution, may choke the plant hindering the Words effectiveness to produce fruit.

Francis de Sales took seriously the words of Christ, “Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart.” As he said himself, it took him 20 years to conquer his quick temper, but no one ever suspected he had such a problem, so overflowing with good nature and kindness was his usual manner of acting. His perennial meekness and sunny disposition won for him the title of “Gentleman Saint.”

As Christian farmers we are sowers, sowers of what we have heard, called to plant and cultivate the Word in others, so they in turn may, not just hear the Word, but obey it and so become sowers themselves. How we hear and live can fertilize the soil in which the Word is sown.