We are asked to choose. This is the bottom line in the Parable of the Sower.
We are not born with one type of soil on which the Word of God - the seed - falls or is sown. We are not determined from birth to be one way or another. Who among us has not experienced periods of dryness, emotional or spiritual? Who among us has not been anxious, distracted by the worries and troubles of our lives? I would argue that during our lives we experience all of the different types of growing conditions described in Luke 8:4-15. We are trampled by the cruelty of others, we lack the moisture of familial love, even of the rain that does or doesn’t fall in these times. We can be choked by our own failures, or by the overwhelming perception of what our duties demand of us. We may lack deep roots, roots that can be fostered by faithful attendance at Mass and the sacrament of Reconciliation, fostered by deeds of kindness to others. Fostered by desiring a realization of the nearness of God and His faithful love. A God who reaches out His hand to us as He did with Peter sinking in the sea. I like to imagine Jesus lovingly reaching out His hand to me immediately when I am in need - which is pretty much all the time.
It is all a choice. A choice made daily. Again and again. Not simply how we were born or what conditions life gives us. What we do know is we are given amazing grace and love, and thus we are enabled to choose to be good soil for the word of God.
Suzanne Braddock
Creighton University and I are old friends, first as a medical resident in a program shared with The University of Nebraska then forty plus years as a parishioner at St John’s, the campus church. Now retired from a gratifying but busy medical practice I enjoy the quiet hours and nature.
Writing these reflections is a challenge and a grace, bringing me closer to the meaning of the Scriptures and the love God wants us to understand.
