Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time/A
Massimo Palombella
In today’s Gospel (Matthew 13:1–23), Jesus tells the parable of the sower. The seed falls along the path, on rocky ground, among thorns, and finally on good soil.
We are inclined to think at once that the good soil is the destination. Yet Jesus suggests something rather different. At the deepest level, each one of us is good soil. Were this not so, his word could never take root in our lives.
What so often conceals this fertile ground are our fears, our anxieties, our wounds, and the many clamours of the heart. That is why we look without truly seeing, we hear without genuinely listening and, above all, we fail to understand.
When Jesus speaks of the good soil, he says that it is the one who hears the word and understands it. The Evangelist employs the Greek verb συνίημι (syníēmi). Literally, it means ‘to bring together’. To understand the word is to allow it to unify our lives: to gather together what has been scattered, to restore what fear has broken into fragments, and to give meaning once more even to our wounds. When this happens, we truly become good soil. Only a life that has been made whole can bear fruit.
There is another detail that deserves our attention. The Greek verb used for the sower is σπείρω (speírō), expressed in the present participle: ὁ σπείρων (ho speírōn), ‘the one who keeps on sowing’. It does not describe an action completed once and for all, but a gesture that continues through time. The Lord never ceases to sow. He continues to sow his word in our lives, even when the ground seems covered with stones or choked by thorns.
The Lord sees what we so often can no longer perceive. Beneath everything that distracts us and weighs us down, there still remains that good soil in which his word can take root and bear fruit.
The Gradual appointed for today’s celebration is taken from Psalm 16 (Ps. 16:8, 2) and bears the following text:
Custodi me, Domine, ut pupillam oculi: sub umbra alarum tuarum protege me.
De vultu tuo iudicium meum prodeat: oculi tui videant aequitatem.
Keep me, O Lord, as the apple of your eye; shelter me beneath the shadow of your wings.
Let my vindication come forth from your presence; may your eyes behold what is right.
The accompanying musical setting is taken from the Graduale Triplex, published by the Abbey of Solesmes in 1979. A recording of the chant is available on YouTube; however, it is presented without any indication concerning its interpretation.
A blessed Sunday and heartfelt greetings.
https://youtu.be/wxgom2WxLsk?si=09kRpXdkC1ngofpO
