Bishop Barron’s Gospel Reflection

Matthew 13:1-23

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the parable of the sower. “A sower went out to sow. Some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil . . . and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

Imagine a crowd of farmers listening to this parable and shaking their heads at the farmer’s strange sowing. He would have been expelled from the seed sowers’ union for such irresponsible farming. Like the foolish sower, God’s love is so extravagant that it defies all of our expectations of what is reasonable.

The most important point of this parable is that we must imitate the foolish love of God. We must love not only those who love us, not only those who are like us and affirm us, but precisely those who are different and unresponsive. Our sun should shine on the good and bad alike.