Soil

It is important for us, from time to time, to take a look at our own hearts, to realize the disposition with which we come to Mass. How do we approach coming to Mass? What are our hearts like as we approach coming to Mass? The reality is, God always shows up. God is always here. God is always doing His thing. He gives His word. He is planting a seed in us. God is effective. Sometimes, we are not always that effective. What I mean by that is, sometimes our hearts are not really ready at all to receive Him. I want you to think about that for just a moment. Take a look at your heart as we go through this parable of the soil.

The sower comes to sow seed, but sometimes when he sows, the seed falls on a hard surface. It falls on a path. Because it falls on a path, birds can come and quickly eat it up before it even takes root. I think the first thing we look at in our hearts is are our hearts hardened? What I mean by that is our hearts can become like a path. A path is something hard. It has been trampled on a long time. Maybe it’s compacted over the years. It has become very hard. If you have been hurt, or abused, or wounded, your heart may be hardened right now. It may be very difficult for God’s seed to take root in you.

The second thing is sometimes we get hard hearts toward people or God. That might happen because of different things that happen in our lives. Sometimes we need that protection from others, but sometimes we keep it up. Sometimes we come to Mass and we still have that hardened heart. The only thing you can do with a path is break it up. It is interesting because we have the builders out there working on the playground right now. They have to tear apart all the layers that were there. First there was the rubber. Underneath there were little stones. Underneath that there was soil. They are just now digging at that. They have the tools out there. Father Jeremy is just loving this. Sometimes our hearts are just so hard they need to be broken open. Just like hard soil, if you break it open, it becomes more malleable and easier to work with. Maybe our hearts are like that. I think one of the best ways to do that is Confession. I know for me, when my heart gets really hard, and I know I am just upset and I am not letting people in or I am not letting God in. Confession is a way to allow God to break open that soil so He can begin to plant that seed.

First of all, our hearts can be hard. Secondly, He says that some seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. Some seed sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. When the sun rose, it scorched for its lack of roots and withered in the sun. Sometimes our prayer lives are not very deep. We come to Mass and hear something great – wow that was a great epiphany! Or that was a great homily. Then you go in to the week and “boom” it is gone. Where did that go? It is because our hearts were never really that deep, and the seed of God could not take root. I want you to think about that. Is your soil deep? By that I mean, do you take time every day for solitude, for really deep prayer, for contemplative prayer, for meditative prayer – to really pray for a significant amount of time every day with the word of God? If we do not, then it is going to be really hard to come to Mass on Sunday, to have God’s word take root, then all of a sudden produce fruit in our lives. There has to be a depth in our heart. Is your soil deep?

Third, he said some seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew and choked it. Sometimes in our lives the soil might be great, but there is so much going on in our lives that the thorns in our lives, that it choked. There could be toxic people in our lives. It could be bad relationships that we are in. It could be a sin that we are tangled up in. It might just be lives of being too busy. Our lives might be too busy and God’s word gets choked by our being too busy. Think about that for your heart. Maybe your life is too busy right now, and you have to get rid of some of those weeds. Is your life too busy?

Finally, he says some seed fell on rich soil,. When the seed fell on rich soil, it took root and produced a hundred fold, sixty fold, and thirty fold. He is saying that if God’s seed, today at Mass, takes root in your life, you are going to see the fruit of it all week long – thirty fold, sixty fold, a hundred fold. His grace is just going to be blossoming in front of you. A lot of it is dependent on our soil. I invite you today to just think about your heart. Is your heart hardened? Or is it shallow? Or is it covered in thorns? Whatever it might be, it might be time to just invite God in to break it up, to break up that hardened soil, so it can truly be the good soil that produces much fruit.