Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 4, 1-20
On another occasion, Jesus began to teach by the sea.
A very large crowd gathered around him
so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down.
And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land.
And he taught them at length in parables,
and in the course of his instruction he said to them,
“Hear this! A sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and the birds came and ate it up.
Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil.
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it
and it produced no grain.
And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit.
It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
And when he was alone,
those present along with the Twelve
questioned him about the parables.
He answered them,
“The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that
they may look and see but not perceive,
and hear and listen but not understand,
in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.”
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable?
Then how will you understand any of the parables?
The sower sows the word.
These are the ones on the path where the word is sown.
As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once
and takes away the word sown in them.
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who,
when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy.
But they have no roots; they last only for a time.
Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.
Those sown among thorns are another sort.
They are the people who hear the word,
but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches,
and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word,
and it bears no fruit.
But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it
and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
Where the seed falls
1. The side of the road. It’s the life of those who don’t want to take risks, who don’t want to make the decisions they must. When you’re trapped by fear, you can’t decide on one thing or the other. You overthink, but you don’t take action. It’s like being on the border of life because you don’t generate anything, and you just let time go by and that’s how life passes you by. You have no goals, you feel empty, and you don’t know what you want. Nothing satisfies you anymore, because you are simply waiting. But remember that you’re the only one who can decide for your life. Be careful, because there is always someone, those birds, who can eat up your opportunities, and you become their puppet. You are nobody’s puppet. You have to listen to God and decide.
2. Rocky ground. It’s when you’ve become hardened by the life you’ve been dealt. You pretend you don’t care about anything, but it’s a shield you’ve put on. You think you can handle anything. You do things with a lot of effort, but you don’t think or feel or rather, you don’t want to think or feel, for fear of being hurt. When you pretend to be hard and impenetrable it’s because many blows have made you experience pain, failure or frustration. Don’t harden yourself because if you do, you’ll end up suffocating yourself and you’ll end up alone.
3. Thorns. It is when you care a lot about your image, about what people will say. Your self-esteem changes according to what people say about you. You’re insecure and need others to give you security. You’re afraid of what people will say and who is going to talk about you. This happens when you don’t value yourself and you let your heart and your life be manipulated by others, so you end up drowning and destroying your identity. This also stifles the seed of life that God proposes to you. That’s why today let’s ask Jesus to heal us of everything that threatens our life, which is the true seed. You are valuable and you are called to create, to generate, to satiate, to make life beautiful. Trusting in God and trusting in yourself you can be great. Please don’t forget, you have much to give in this life.
Don’t forget that something good is on the way!
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
