This is one of those days when giving a homily feels a little bit like cheating.  That’s because St. Matthew provides us with more help than we usually get.  There are 23 parables in St. Matthew’s gospel, and this one is unusual in that we also get an explanation.  Parables are always supposed to be a little confusing at first, because they are meant to be thought-provoking.  This time though, St. Matthew records not just the parable itself, but also the explanation that Our Lord provides for what this imagery is meant to convey.  The Fathers of the Church saw this parable as a guidebook for the spiritual life, a kind of basic blueprint for the major struggles that we all tend to have, instructions for how to receive God’s grace most effectively.  There are four basic situations laid out for us: seed falls on the road, seed falls on rocky ground, seed falls among thorns, seed falls on rich ground.  

The first thing to notice: in all of these situations: God is the sower of the seed, and he is scattering seed.  The Lord describes the seed as “the word of the kingdom.”  It’s the good news, the gospel of our salvation.  It’s all the activities of God’s grace, even on a daily basis.  God is constantly showering his grace down upon our hearts.  Every moment of every day.  He is the sower, and he is giving us graces that we need to live our lives well.  Our job is make our hearts and minds ready for those seeds to take root, to spring up, and to bear fruit.  To make our hearts good rich soil.  How do we do that?  How do we accept all the good things God wants to give us?  Personally, I wouldn’t know how.  I want to let God in, so he can transform my life; I just don’t really know exactly what that looks like.  So he tells me.  He tells us.  He gives us three major pitfalls to avoid, and then he tells us how to do it right.  

The first pitfall is the seed falling on a path: think of a paved road.  Nothing is going to happen.  The seed will just sit there or get carried off by a bird or something.  This is what happens when we don’t see what’s going on at all.  If you just don’t know that God is showering you with graces, or that God wants you to be happy, or that there is a God: a seed can’t settle in the concrete of a hardened heart.  A seed needs at least a little bit of dirt.  So the first step is just to know that God loves you.  Know and keep it in the front of your mind as much as you can that God loves you, and he is always giving you graces.  Just remember.  Remember that there is a God, and he loves you.  That’s already enough for the seed to be planted.  

Second: seed falling on rocky ground.  There’s some soil down there, but there’s also still too much rock. The seed might sprout, but it won’t survive.  This is what happens when we don’t trust God.  We haven’t tilled the soil.  We give in to discouragement because we’re not ready for the difficulties of life.  Now, we naturally turn to God in hard moments, and that’s a good thing.  But we also need to prepare ourselves in advance, before things get hard.  By praying every day, by participating in Mass and going to confession, by staying close to Our Lady, praying her rosary: with these kinds of things, we are tilling the soil.  We’re being proactive, not just reactive.  We have daily, weekly, and monthly spiritual routines that keep the soil tilled and fresh.  We’re ready: we already trust God and rely on God before difficulties come.  

Next: seed falls among thorns.  There’s nothing wrong with the soil, but there’s too much scrap around the plants that spring up, and they get choked off.  The Lord calls this: “worldly anxiety and the lure of riches.”  In other words, we care too much about worldly success; we care too much about physical comfort and pleasure; we desire too much the acceptance and admiration of the world around us.  We obsess about those things which seem to make us happy, but don’t.  And this constant temptation is why we need the sacrament of confession so much.  This sacrament clears out all that underbrush.  God weeds the garden for us, and helps us to live for those things that truly bring joy and peace.  

So: three basic hazards; three basic solutions.  Think of God as lovingly and often as you can.  Develop a regular routine of spiritual practices.  Go to confession, often, to clear out the thorns of worldly living.  Think of God.  Spiritual routine.  Go to confession.  These things will keep the soil rich and fresh, and ready to receive the grace of God as it comes.  Not only will your spiritual life flourish and grow, but it will yield a rich harvest of fruit in your own life and the lives of those you love, thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold.