Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
The wisdom of the countryman
On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” Mt 13,1-9
The parables tell us about the events of the life and the person capable to listen can obtain learning, hope and joy. The life itself is a long parable, which is good to be able to read and listen, to avoid that it remains a non-sense experience. The parable of the sower of which Jesus speaks today, can be defines as the parable of the hope. Each man, either marrying the God project on him either following his own project, is called to live the interior dynamic of this hope. It is not easy to see good mature wheat in the seed which falls and disappears in the darkness of the soil, being aware that a part of it can be lost among the stones, the blackberry bushes and on the road.
This was the experience of Jesus who, realizing that his word and his actions were falling in the not understanding and the hostility of the people, suffered a lot and sometime he had also some doubts on the final result of his mission. Surely when narrating this parable he had in mind the Psalm 125: “Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy. Those who go forth weeping, carrying sacks of seed, Will return with cries of joy, carrying their bundled sheaves”. (Ps 125,5-6) The person , however, who carries on the God project on him, lives quietly in the hope, because he knows that the heavenly Father will protect the seed under the soil and he will send the rain by the suitable moment. This is also our experience as parents, not only of Jesus: when in their young years we were realizing that our sons were a little dispersed and sometime going towards wrong routes, our hope was always supported by the word of God, which we tried every morning to seed in them during the prayer. The facts, grace to God, proved that we were right. It is the antique wisdom of the countryman who, while the seed dies in the darkness of the soil, already sees the ear of the wheat turning golden under the sun.