Sower and Grower

The Parable of the Sower has two sides.  We are the receiver of seeds sown by others and God’s Word.  How much fruit we yield depends on the richness of our soil.  We can make our soil more fertile by seeking/practicing humility: we don’t seek things from God or our neighbor for ourselves.  Love is about giving of self.  If we are fertile soil, our fruit will serve others.  We can’t seek love FROM God or neighbor.  We must take actions to love them, diminishing our self-love.

We’d like to think that we have fertile soil, that we are depositories of the Word of God.  We seek to spread our supposed good fruit, our seeds, as God would wish us to.  The soil our seeds falls on WE do not change, and the taking root of our sown seeds is the result of the sun and rain, God’s actions.  But we often want to control those results.

Especially for friends or family, we often find it difficult to accept the Parable of the Sower.  We don’t sow seeds they may not like.  We don’t ask them to go to church with us or to pray with us.  We crave their love --- it’s what WE want --- and we take actions to get love, even if those are not God’s actions.  If our family, our friends, our culture doesn’t like our seeds, we stop sowing so we will feel loved.  We are followers of Jesus, spreading His Word --- unless they don’t want to hear it.  This is especially true of sexual sins, which many/most now say don’t exist.  It’s “a choice”.  And we lie to ourselves by agreeing yes, it is a sin, but giving no witness to that.  We say we believe Jesus, but don’t tell anyone else.  There are parts of the Gospel which describe these types of “followers” of whom Jesus says: “I don’t know you.”

We forget the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, like feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor, visiting those in prison, or admonishing the sinner.  In these works of mercy, we can love those who have made poor choices without supporting their choices.  Jesus ate with tax collectors, but He didn’t excuse their sins at the dinner table.  He came to save sinners, not affirm their actions.  His life was a witness against sin, as ours should be.  Part of the seeds we sow are our actions, our witness to what we believe.  We don’t join gay parades because they are fun.  We don’t go to gay marriage celebrations.  When our children come to visit with “a friend”, they sleep in separate bedrooms.  This is our witness to what we believe.  These are seeds we sow.  We don’t lecture or point fingers; they know us by our actions.  It should be no surprise.  If they want to talk about why we believe, we explain --- and if we can’t explain, we seek reasons why Jesus taught that.  I thought it ironic that a men’s group studying writings of converts found that the new Christians overcame their non-belief of Christ’s word by doing research, yet these same men said they disagreed with Catholic sexual teachings --- and never sought to research the what’s and why’s of those teachings.  Others can find the truth, but they can’t?

Sexual sins are pointed out in the Old and New Testaments.  In Revelation we read how God praises some new Christian communities, except that they commit sexual sins.  It’s not new news.  What is new is our culture not only denying they are sins, but celebrating them.  And we go along.  As do even some Catholic priests.

I heard “Yes, but they’re good kids,” and “they can’t help their urges.”  Kleptomania, alcoholism, drug addiction and pedophilia are also said to be compulsive --- “they can’t help it” --- sins.  And even if treatment programs don’t work, we expect those people to WILL to stop those sins.  Even if they can’t help feeling gay, they can will not to act on their compulsions.  Even if pornography is the number one internet web action, we can still WILL not to watch.

When we stop willing, when we excuse other’s weaknesses --- or celebration of their weaknesses --- so that “they will love us” or not think we are judging them, we are agreeing with their judgment of us.  We accept that we are wrong in our belief, and that God is wrong.  They judge us and God, and we are afraid of judging THEIR ACTIONS (not them), they might think we don’t love them.

Scripture says that if you want to follow ME, you must be willing to leave mother, father, sister, and brother.  When we publicly condone sexual sins, we have stopped sowing seeds of Christ.  We are not His witnesses.  And He will say “I don’t know you.”

And “but I wanted them to love me” will be answered with “and you didn’t want ME to love you?”

This past week the Catholic Church celebrated St. Maria Goretti, a young girl who in the early 1900’s refused to give up her virginity, and was killed.  Today laws are being passed which make some teachings of the Christian faith illegal.  Are there ANY teachings of Jesus you’d be willing to go to jail for, much less be martyred for, or are all His teachings “relative” to the times?