At 12 noon today, the Holy Father Francis appeared at the study window in the Vatican Apostolic Palace to recite the Angelus with the faithful and pilgrims gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
These are the words of the Pope in introducing the Marian prayer:
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
In this Sunday’s Gospel (cf Mt 13 : 1-23) Jesus tells a large crowd of the parable – which we all know well – of the sower, who throws the seed on four different types of soil. The Word of God, symbolized by the seeds, is not an abstract Word, but it is Christ himself, the Word of the Father who incarnated in Mary’s womb. Therefore, welcoming the Word of God means welcoming the person of Christ, the same Christ.
There are different ways of receiving the Word of God. We can do it as a road, where birds immediately come and eat seeds. This would be distraction, a great danger of our time. Harassed by so much chatter, by so many ideologies, by the continuous possibilities of being distracted inside and outside the home, you can lose the taste of silence, of recollection, of dialogue with the Lord, so much so as to risk losing the faith, of not accepting the Word of God. We are seeing everything, distracted by everything, by worldly things.
Another possibility: we can welcome the Word of God as a stony ground, with little land. There the seed sprouts early, but soon it also dries up, because it cannot take root deeply. It is the image of those who welcome the Word of God with the momentary enthusiasm which, however, remains superficial, does not assimilate the Word of God. And so, in the face of the first difficulty, we think of a suffering, a disturbance of life, that faith still weak it dissolves, as the seed that falls in the middle of the stones dries up.
We can, again – a third possibility of which Jesus speaks in the parable -, accept the Word of God as a ground where thorn bushes grow. And the thorns are the deception of wealth, success, worldly concerns … There the Word grows a little, but it remains suffocated, it is not strong, it dies or it does not bear fruit.
Finally – the fourth possibility – we can welcome it as the good ground. Here, and only here, the seed takes root and bears fruit. The seed fallen on this fertile ground represents those who listen to the Word, welcome it, keep it in their hearts and put it into practice in everyday life.
This of the sower is a bit the “mother” of all parables, because she speaks of listening to the Word. It reminds us that it is a fruitful and effective seed; and God scatters it everywhere with generosity, regardless of waste. So is the heart of God! Each of us is a ground on which the seed of the Word falls, nobody is excluded. The Word is given to each of us. We can ask ourselves: what kind of terrain are they? Do I look like the road, the stony ground, the bush? If we want, with the grace of God we can become good soil, tilled and cultivated with care, to mature the seed of the Word. It is already present in our heart, but making it bear fruit depends on us, it depends on the welcome we reserve for this seed. We are often distracted by too many interests, by too many references, and it is difficult to distinguish, among many voices and many words, that of the Lord, the only one who sets us free. This is why it is important to get used to listening to the Word of God, to reading it. And I come back, once more, on that advice: always carry with you a small Gospel, a pocket edition of the Gospel, in your pocket, in your bag … And so, read a piece every day, so that you are used to reading the Word of God, and understand what the seed God offers you, and think with which land I receive it.
May the Virgin Mary, the perfect model of a good and fertile land, help us, with her prayer, to become available land without thorns or stones, so that we can bear good fruit for us and for our brothers.
[00883-IT.02] [Original text: Italian]
Taken from the Vatican News – Vatican New
