Saturday, November 13, 2010

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13:3-7

Today’s gospel passage is taken from the parable of the sower. The seed in question is the word of God.

God’s word is so powerful; so fruitful, that it can work wonders. The ‘thorns’ in today’s scripture passage refer to various forms of sin caused by “worries about this life and the love of riches” which prevent the word from taking root.

We are living in a worldly and selfish society which has lost the consciousness of sin. If you want to be chic these days, do not talk about sin. Sin is not an acceptable topic of conversation in most circles. It’s okay to converse about pathologies, inimical environmental effects, negative physiological and psychological influences when dealing with what used to be called sin. It would appear that, for most people, sin itself is outdated; it is an antediluvian word, an obsolete concept from a by-gone age. A lie, in legal circles, is no longer a sin but a response in the negative. Burglary, during the Watergate scandal, was not regarded as a sin but as surreptitious entry.

Jesus, however, took sin seriously. He knew that sin was more than individual sins, more than the sum of individual sins. Sin is like an oil-slick, quick to defile innocent shores. In today’s gospel passage, Jesus sees sin as asphyxiating thorns bent on choking the life-giving seed of God’s word. We need to be careful to avoid the asphyxiating thorns of this life which are everywhere about us; the thorns of greed, jealousy, envy and lose living.

We can take up Jesus’ battle against the evil of sin. We can do it without fear; first of all, because Jesus conquered sin; and secondly, because we have the powerful word of God to help us. God’s word does what it says: it vanquishes sin; it leads to redemption.

Fr. Hugh Duffy