We are all familiar with the parable of the sower, who distributes his seed with such varying success. Our Lord helpfully unpacks and explains this particular parable for us, teaching us how to interpret His parables in general.
Something we might bear in mind is that in the ancient world, even more than now, seed was a highly precious commodity. In the days before combine harvesters, the seeds of crops had to be gathered at considerable expense of time and effort. In the parable of the sower, however, we see the seed being dispersed with great generosity, and even abandon – so much so that a good deal of it ends up being scattered along the pathway, or on earth too shallow to support a root system. And yet the sower continues in the confidence that, however much seed goes to waste, the crop that eventually grows to maturity will have made his efforts worthwhile.
The living and life-giving seed of the Gospel, and the salvation it brings, is also a commodity that comes to us at great cost. Its price is, in fact, Our Lord’s own Precious Blood. When Mel Gibson’s remarkable film The Passion of the Christ was released in London in 2004, the Oratory fathers booked a cinema in Chelsea so that we could attend as a parish. It was a memorable evening for various reasons. At the beginning of the viewing someone sitting near the Provost of the day complained that his view of the screen was obstructed by a sizeable statue of Our Lady of Fatima, complete with crown, which had been placed on the chair in front of him. Hearing his remonstrations, the statue’s owner turned around to inform him politely but firmly that Our Lady’s ticket had been paid for with good money, and so the Mother of God had as much right to a seat as everyone else. As we spilt onto the King’s Road afterwards, a number of parishioners remarked that one moment in the film which they had found especially harrowing was the scourging at the pillar, in which Our Lord’s Body was beaten and flayed like wheat on the threshing floor, until the courtyard of the Praetorium resembled a glistening crimson lake of blood. During that scene there was one person in the crowd who seemed to realise the value of what had been spilt. It was Our Lord’s Blessed Mother, who fell to Her knees to soak up the blood of Her Son with linen cloths. The message was clear: each and every drop of that Precious Blood was valuable beyond words.
Those of us who have been baptized have received a most precious blessing – and one which bears its fullest fruits in eternity. At our Baptism, the supernatural gifts (“Theological Virtues”) of Faith, Hope and Charity were planted like little seeds within us. And our godparents made the promise to tend and nurture those seeds and bring them to fruition. The heart of a newly baptised infant actually provides very fertile ground for the nurturing of these precious seeds. Perfectly pure and innocent, there is nothing within a young child to stand in the way of the fullness of God’s life and His love. And so a newly baptised child is in fact brimming over with the Sanctifying Grace which is the life of God. Whenever we feel that sanctity is distant from our hearts, then, we should perhaps remind ourselves that when we were baptised, we were each one of us made saints, at least for a time.
Perils to our salvation then arise as we mature. That is when the seedlings that were planted so safely and securely in our infancy have to contend with thorns and the scorching rays of the sun, such that the supernatural life that was infused into us in childhood can be in danger of being stunted or even suffocated.
We should reflect, often, on the value of those seeds that were planted in our hearts and souls in Baptism. With God’s help we need to tend what has been sown within us carefully, pruning away and uprooting the thorns and thickets of vices and unhelpful worldly attachments that threaten to throttle the supernatural life of the soul. We need to pray for the strength to chase away the predatory birds of temptation, which would snatch those seeds from us; we need to turn away from the blinding scorching light of all that information (so much of it misinformation or downright disinformation) with which we are dazzled by the media, and focus our attention towards that light of the Gospel which feeds our Faith, the light that strengthens our Hope, and the light that teaches us to love God above all else and to recognise and honour His image in our neighbour so that Charity is brought to perfection within us.
During this month of the Blessed Virgin’s glorious Assumption into Heaven, let us ask for Our Lady’s intercession to gain for us a true appreciation of the value of the graces that we have been given, and to use them well.
Father Julian Large