The Reckless Sower: A Love That Will Not Stop

Hello - below is my homily from July 5th. I will publish one more homily before I take some much needed time away.

Hope you are having a wonderful summer with family and friends..

A sower went out to sow.

I bring you this homily today from Florence, Italy.
I am here with a group of Jesuits
from throughout the whole world,
those working in formation, bringing them all together
to learn a little bit more about artificial intelligence
and how to integrate that into their ministry.

But here is what I found fascinating.
I look at the beautiful hill country here,
we are right in the middle of Tuscany,
and the hills are covered
with such beautiful vineyards, it is stunning.
I thought to myself as we are sitting, looking out,
that those vineyards and vines were planted
hundreds of years ago by people
who will never taste a drop of the wine
that I have drunk from those vineyards.

And I thought to myself, is  not that amazing?
It took me to come all the way over here
to realize how much we inherit
from our previous generations
who have planted and from whom we reap the benefits.
Is that not true in our own lives?

How much we have inherited
from so many in our own lives,
our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents,
people who we will never even know.
And here we are,
we are the ripe beneficiaries
of a tremendous amount of fruit.

In today’s gospel,
Jesus is the sower that goes out to sow.
What is extraordinary about this
is that he is telling us that he is the sower,
he is the one who plants all this.
And of course, we have inherited this very faith
from 2,000 years
being passed on from generation to generation.
It is been given to us as a gift.

But here is the part that is really shocking to us,
he goes out
and he sprinkles the seed around everywhere,
on the thorn bushes,
on the rocky soil that is covered in weeds,
and then he plants it in good soil.
It is almost reckless
with the way he plants the seed.
Any good farmer would tell you
that the seed is your precious commodity.

You go out and you till the soil,
you get it ready, you make it ready to go,
and then you plant the seed,
because it is a precious commodity.
But what Jesus is saying to every one of us
is that he is a reckless sower with the seed.
He just throws it out into every heart,
every heart that is willing to hear.

Now, let’s face it,
there are times that our heart
is like that hardened soil.
There are times that our heart
is like that soil covered in thorn bushes and weeds.
And there are times, yes,
that it is that good soil.

But Jesus plants the seed regardless.
It is not measured on the preparation,
it is measured on his reckless generosity
with his love,
the love of God that he showers upon all of us.
Here is the other part
that is really powerful about this reading:
if you look at how it comes back
30, 60, 100-fold.

That is the reaping.
This also, for those who would have heard it originally,
would be an outrageous amount of fruit from a seed.
And what would have been considered good back then
would have been sevenfold.
If it had been sevenfold or eightfold,
it would have been a huge reaping.
But instead, 30.
But, 60, that is an extraordinary amount.

Now for us, and for you back home in Silicon Valley,
whne we are measuring things.
30 is not considered a big amount.
100 is what everybody wants.
We are measured in these vast quantities
and we are measured by what we produce.
Jesus is telling us
that he is giving to us
regardless of what we have done.
Regardless of how well we have prepared,
he is going to continue to shower
his word of God, his love,
onto every one of our hearts.

So, what does this all mean for us?
What it means for us
is that we need to first accept
that it is God who is the sower.
Jesus is the sower
who showers recklessly his love onto all of us.
And he says that to every one of us
on a Sunday morning.

That no matter how hard we come in
and our heart is hardened,
hardened maybe with unforgiveness,
or maybe we have struggled
with different distractions in our life.
Work has become all-consuming.
A broken relationship is becoming all-consuming.
That God is going to shower us
with his word and his love.
We accept that first.
And he will produce with our heart
a rich, rich, fruitful, bountiful harvest.

So what can we do for our own hearts?
We can prepare the soil of our hearts
and do a little bit of work
to receive the word of God
more generously, more willingly, till the soil
and break open those parts of our lives
that are hurting, that are broken and wounded,
and not have such a hardened heart.

Or maybe till the soil of all the weeds
and pluck the distractions out of our life.
We spend a little bit more time
with family and friends
and less time on social media,
to engage with our seniors, our elders who we love
and who have given generation after generation to us,
that we have received.  

There are many ways
we can till the soil of our hearts,
but the one part of it that we can do
is through prayer.
We can till that soil of our own hearts through prayer,
but also our relationships with one another,
that we can till the soil
by being present to one another
and give this as a gift to others
so that the soil of our community,
the soil of our hearts,
can grow and be bountiful too.
Remember, it is all a gift from God,
because he is the sower.

“A sower went out to sow.”