Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday - 24th January 2024
Abbot Paul • January 23, 2024
I do hope the present storms are not disrupting your life too much. We appear to have been let off lightly in Herefordshire this time and for that we thank the Lord. However, I’m well aware that this is not the case with many of those who follow this message each day. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you, as they do to those suffering from the effects of the war in Ukraine, worse still the destruction and annihilation of Gaza. Can any good come of this? Hatred and war cannot be the seedbeds of friendship and peace. It would be so easy to fall into despair.
Today’s Gospel passage from Mark, (Mk 4: 1-20), is the parable of the sower and the seed. What happens as Jesus begins to teach is rather interesting. “Jesus began to teach by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there. The people were all along the shore, at the water’s edge.” Much of the Gospel story takes place by the lakeside or on the lake. So huge is the crowd on this occasion, that he decides to get into a boat and teach from there. In that way the crowds can at least see him and hear him better and there’ll be no danger of anyone falling into the water and drowning. We are told that in the course of his teaching, much of which was in parables, Jesus also used the parable of the sower and the seed. First of all, we hear the parable, then a conversation held in private between Jesus and his disciples and finally Jesus’ own interpretation of the parable. I won’t repeat the parable, as you know it well. In addition, you can read it in your Missal or Bible.
The first thing we find out is that in the course of his teaching, Jesus used several parables rather than just one, as we have here, and that once alone, he is with the Twelve “together with the others who formed his company.” So, it was no small group of people that accompanied and probably travelled round with Jesus. Somehow, they must have continued working for their living, for their expenses could not have been small. They want to know what the parables mean. Now if they had difficulty understanding their meaning, what did the crowds make of them? An interesting question! He tells them, somewhat cryptically, “The secret of the kingdom of God is given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may see and see again, but not perceive; may hear and hear again, but not understand; otherwise, they might be converted and be forgiven.” In other words, faith in Jesus is the only key that opens up the meaning of the parables, for they are really about him. They explain who he is and what his mission is. He then explains that, “What the sower is sowing is the word.” St Paul tells us that, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.” (2 Cor 5:19) It is through the word spoken by Jesus and accepted in faith that we are reconciled with God. “There are those who have received the seed in rich soil: they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” We pray that God will find rich soil in our hearts where his word may flourish, grow and bear fruit. Amen.
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