15th Sunday Ordinary Time, cycle A. 9-10/ July 2005

Các Trưởng và Thiếu Nhi Thân mến,

Reading the parable today, I could not help but think that this farmer does not know how to do business, because he sows 4 lots of seeds but only one falls into good soil. That means that only 25% of his work is making a profit. This is not a way to do business in our world today, for this man would soon run out of money and be declared bankrupt. However, according to the gospel, this farmer continues to go out and sow his seeds generously at the side of street, in the rocky ground, and among thorns, and in the good soil. He is happy to spread out his seeds. What do you think?
Back to the gospel, I like the parable today. For me, an image of the sower in this parable is similar to a fisherman who goes out fishing. He had thrown a net into the sea, but not every time will he catch a fish. But he is not disappointed and continues to throw out his net into the sea, he did it with great hope that he would catch many fish. From this image, therefore, I think we can say the parable of the sower today perhaps could be considered as a parable of hope – God is the hope for us, and we have a hope for ourselves.
First of all, with this parable, Jesus wants to tell us that God loves us and God is the source of our hope. Jesus is the sower and he is looking for a good soil in which to sow. God is doing his sowing by preaching his words and pouring out his grace into our hearts every day of our lives. Yet, somehow we have not responded to his words; or perhaps we are not showing we are a good soil for God’s work. In fact, we have rejected him; we have shown that we are not ready to accept Jesus the Son of God in our lives. We even deny God’s presence, and turn ourselves away from God. But God does not give up on us, instead he continues to work, to sow and hopes that some where in our hearts, there will be a room, a place in which we could open ourselves to God. By opening ourselves for God, that is when we are listening to his words. As soon as we are opened to God, we then can see a difference. In other words, we can have a good harvest for ourselves. God has always loved us and he is also the source of our hope.
Speaking of God’s love and hope for us, Church history has proved this point very clearly. For example, let us take a look at St. Peter who denied Jesus three times in one night, but Jesus did not give up on him, and deep inside of Peter’s heart, there was a room for sorrow and repentance and he wanted to return to God. Jesus was there to accept him and welcome him back. Or we can look at the other one, St. Paul who loved to go after the Christian people; and arrest them; yet there was a little room in his heart that urged him to be fervent and humble in order to learn more about Jesus. He did, and Jesus was there and turned him into the greatest missionary of all time. Or we can look at St. Augustine, who was very proud of his knowledge. In his pride, he lived a life contrary to all the teachings of the church, yet there was a little room in him that constantly pushed him to look forward and to find out the truth. He then became, as we know, the great Saint in defending our faith. In short, there are many signs or events in our lives that prove God’s love and hope for us. It’s our task to be aware of this and to recognize them for ourselves.
God always believes in us and has put his hope in us. God has never forgotten anyone of us, even when we deny him like the bandit who was crucified with him. That is the way God love us and looks at us. The question now is what about us? Can we look at ourselves and at one another with faith and hope? The key answer is that if God has faith and hope in us, so we also need to have faith and hope in ourselves and in one another.
We can have hope in ourselves as long as we stay in a good relation with God. There are no reasons for us to be ashamed, to be intimidated or to be disappointed when we fail in our relationship with God. For God, he is always on our side. God has never stopped giving us his grace. Let’s not forget that each one of us always has a place before God.
Secondly, we can have much faith and hope in one another as long as we work for it. In our relationship with one another, we can build our hope by not looking at things that we could easily criticise, but rather we try to look at the good side of people. In doing this, we are really challenging ourselves in acknowledging the best things in other people. It also makes us more humble and accepting of our weaknesses. If we are really doing that, I am sure each one of us will bear greater fruit: a great fruit of love, a great fruit of forgiveness, and a great fruit of accepting ourselves and each other.
My dear brothers and sisters hope is a great characteristic of our Christian faith. God has faith in us and he is also the source of our hope. It is hope in Christ that helps us to face and over come many challenges in our daily life. Hope in Christ is promising us a better future and gives us safety in a good place with our God. Let our hope in Christ increase in us; deepen our relationship with God, and each other. May our God bless us with his love and his hope, so that we can go out and share his love and hope with one another in our daily life. Amen.