Tilling the Soil

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The parable we hear in today's Gospel reading is St. Luke's version of a parable that received a much larger treatment in the Gospel of St. Matthew. St. Luke's pared down version eliminates some of the details of setting and explanation, but the core of the parable remains the same. The pared down version gives us a chance to consider this wonderful parable again a little later in the liturgical year.

Today is also a Franciscan feast day, the day on which members of the Franciscan Orders rejoice in the miracle of St. Francis's experience on Mt. Laverna in Italy where, deep in prayer and contemplation, St. Francis received the stigmata, the five marks of the crucifixion of Jesus. Although the Gospel of the Sower and the Seed will not be read at Mass for Franciscans today, I find a particularly telling connection between the Gospel reading and the feast I will celebrate today. I find that connection in the notion of the soil.

Four kinds of soil are enumerated in the parable; namely, the path, the rocky ground, the thorny patch and the good soil. You will remember that the seed could not grow on the path because it was trampled by the feet of travelers, nor on the rocky ground because it could not root, nor in the thorny patch because it was choked by the thorns. It only grew in the good soil where it bore fruit. As I read the life of St. Francis of Assisi, I realize that St. Francis exemplifies all four kinds of soil within his lifetime. He was raised in a Catholic household by a mother who was devout, but also be a father who was a rather greedy cloth merchant. Francesco Bernardone heard the word of God in his youth, but he was also tempted by the devil to continue in a riotous lifestyle that gained him the title of "King of the Revels" in his native Assisi. The word of God did spring up in his life as evidenced by the fact that he was always kind to beggars. However, it lacked the roots to withstand the temptations that came his way as he drank with his friends in the village taverns. Finally, it was choked off by the thorns of wealth, the wealth that his father was accruing through his business. It was choked off by his desire to be one of the nobility, one of the knights in Assisi's army.

The word of God finally fell on good soil in St. Francis's life when he began to hear the call of God in dreams. The voice in the dream asked him whether it was wise to follow the slave or the Master. When Francis awoke, he realized that he had enslaved himself to sin and began a long road characterized by penance and prayer. Those penances and that time spent in prayer began to till the soil of Francis' soul until the Word of God found a place to thrive and produce a rich harvest. The life of Francis illustrates how each of us has a little bit of each kind of soil within us. By prayer and penance we can till the soil until it becomes a place where God's word finds an hospitable environment.