+ In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is travelling throughout cities and villages in Judea, a region that was located in the southern part of modern-day Israel. We find Jesus with a great crowd gathered around him eager to listen to him speak. In the Gospel of Matthew, which also relates this account, we are told that Jesus was sitting by the sea and that the crowd was so large that Jesus had to go into a boat to preach as the great crowd stood on the beach to listen to him.

Jesus proceeds to speak to the crowd in a parable. Now have you ever wondered what a parable is? The word parable derives from the Greek word parabavllw, which means to place two objects side by side for comparison. When we speak of a parable in relation to Jesus’ ministry, however, we ordinarily mean an imaginary story; yet it is a story that could have actually happened. It has a sense of reality, tangibility, and meaning to the listener. The purpose of a parable, this story, is to illustrate and convey some higher spiritual truth.

The parable of the sower that Jesus proceeds to tell is perhaps one of the more famous parables in the New Testament after the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable Jesus tells goes like this:

A sower, in other words a farmer, goes out to his field to plant, or as Scripture says, "sow some seed." As the sower sowed his seed, some of it fell on the path where it is trampled upon and eaten by birds. Some seed fell on rock and as it began to grow, it withered and died for lack of moisture. Some of the seed fell among the thorns. The thorns grew with the seed and eventually choked it. But some of the seed fell on good soil and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold. And Jesus ends the parable by saying: "Let anyone with ears to hear, listen."

Earlier, we said that a parable was a story used to illustrate some higher spiritual truth — that a parable has a meaning deeper than just the story itself. But what is the spiritual truth of the parable of the sower? What does it mean? Even the disciples themselves, who were there with Jesus, did not understand what it meant! So what did they do? They asked Jesus what the meaning of the parable was.

In one of the rare instances in scripture, we have Jesus himself who tells us what the parable means.

Jesus tells us that the seed, which the sower is sowing in the field, is the word of God. But what is the word of God? What is the word of God?

We find the answer to this question in the opening verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the same verse which we read during the Divine Liturgy on Easter Sunday night which states, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. " "…and the Word was God." The "Word", the seed in the parable is God. But if we continue to read the first chapter of the Gospel of John, we find out even more in the 14th verse of the first chapter which says, "And the Word became flesh and lived among us." The Word is Jesus Christ himself. The one whom we declare every Sunday in the Creed who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became man. So the seed that is sown in this parable is Jesus Christ and the good news of the Gospel.

And what about the different types of earth — the path, the rock, the soil with thorns, and the good soil? What do they represent?

The path, as Jesus tells us, represents those who have heard of him and his message. But after hearing about Jesus and the message of the Gospel, the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved.

The rock represents those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy; but there is no root. They believe for a little while and then, in a time of testing, they fall away from the faith.

As for the soil with thorns, this represents those who hear the word and receive it; but as they go on their way, the cares, riches, and pleasures of life choke them. Their fruit does not mature; their faith remains barren and dies.

And so, I ask you now, what type of soil are you? What is the condition of your heart?

Are you like a path, that is hard, untilled, devoid of any fertility because it is constantly trampled upon? Are you closed to allowing the divine seed from finding any way into your heart and mind? If you find yourself to be a worn and beaten path, then drive away any flocks of birds that might come to snatch away the word of God. Then awake! and cultivate yourself through prayer, and the reading of the word of God — the scriptures, so that you may be like productive and well-tilled soil that will bring forth fruit to the glory of God and for your salvation.

If you are like the rock, that upon hearing the word receive it with joy but have no root and in time of temptation fall away; like those whose faith has not been proved and depends only on words and not applying your life to the living of the Gospel; like those who enter the Church, who feel pleasure in seeing many assembled together, but once you have left the Church, you have forgotten to live the liturgy daily in your life; if you are like those who in times of trouble forget God and the Church, then do not despair, for today is the day of salvation. Today is the day to lift yourself out of your troubles and find refuge and shelter in Christ. For today is the day, as the prophet Jeremiah says, to take up arms and shields and break the hardness of your heart so that the word of God might take root and grow. But this can only be done through continued prayer and repentance.

If you are like the soil whose seed is choked by thorns, whose life is choked and confused by worldly cares and desires; whose life is, as the prophet Hosea said "becomes a handful that can produce no meal" then today is the day to begin cleaning out the thorns. Today is the day to remove from you life — to tear up by the root — whatever is injurious and distances you from a relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And if you are like the good soil, worthy of admiration, well productive and abundant in fruit, then take care. Beware that your fertile soil does not become dry, but water it daily with the Word of God, who said, "The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."

So where can you go and what can you do to enrich yourselves; to become and remain fertile soil and receive the seed of life? The answer is here all around you. The answer is here, in the Church. For there are many opportunities here
For just as the Word, Jesus Christ, became incarnate so too must we take the word of God — the message of the Gospel — and make it real, make it incarnate in our lives. The only way this can be done is if we accept the seed of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and let Him grow within us.

May our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Word, come into come into our hearts and minds and cultivate our lives so that we may bear the fruit of good works to His glory! And as Jesus Christ himself said when he ended this parable, "Let anyone with ears to hear, listen." Amen.