It suddenly becomes clear that each one of is all four kinds of soil at different moments in life.
Sometimes we are the impenetrable path. The birds might as well come and take the seeds away because we are not going to listen at all, our minds are made up, truth doesn’t matter.
Sometimes we are the rocky soil. We listen, we hear the truth, but it has no lasting effect.
Sometimes we are soil with the thorns. We listen with the best of intention. We want to be good Christians. But then, we let the thorns from the world around us come in and choke it out.
And occasionally, we are the good soil, we listen, we hear, we allow the Word to actually take root, we are transformed, and through us God is able to produce much fruit.
If we are honest, we can admit that we vacillate between all four. And the more important question is why. Each of us must look into our hearts and ask what triggers each of the four states. Sometimes we are so petty that the name of the person speaking is enough to turn us into “the path.” We will hear nothing that person has to say. Other times we shift away from being good soil so subtly that we don’t even notice. That is, perhaps, the most dangerous to our spiritual well-being.
This parable reminds each of us that we must constantly be asking which kind of soil we are at any given moment. When I read the scriptures, when I pray, when I look something up in the Catechism, when I read the latest teaching from Pope Francis, or my own bishop, how do I listen? Am I looking for something to disagree with, something I think is wrong? Or do I truly open my mind and heart? Am I willing to let my ideas be the ones that die to make room for a deeper truth?
Unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies...
Which of my opinions or ideas will die today?
