Good dirt

Some scholars say that the original point of the Parable of the Sower, which we hear in today’s Gospel (Luke 8:4-15), is how God spreads his word generously, even in places that most people would think unlikely to bear fruit.

This, of course, must not to be understood as disregarding or disrespecting the allegorical interpretation our Lord himself gives immediately following the parable. Much of Scripture is richly layered with meaning.

Indeed, there are layers of meaning in these parables and metaphors that would have been better understood by those who first heard Christ’s words than by people who live in modern times and big cities.

One thing that would have been well understood in our Lord’s agrarian environment is that “good soil” is usually no accident, but rather the result of the very hard work of the farmer, who removes the stones and weeds that may obstruct the seed’s growth and who even loosens the soil so that the seed may take root more quickly and deeply.

In this allegorical interpretation, God is the farmer of our souls and he is the one who can create the good soil within us, if we let him.

May we always open our hearts, minds, and souls to the Lord, so that he may remove any obstacles and give us the grace to embrace his word "with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance."