The Parable of the Sower

Fr Paul reads Luke’s Gospel (8:4-15) and says we now come to a section where Luke gives a number of parables about the Kingdom.

As he does this, Luke is not so much reflecting on the nature of the Kingdom but on the individual virtues and vices that we have in our hearts. In the first of these parables, the parable of the sower, which we hear today, the writer of Luke concentrates on the disposition of those who receive the seed.

Fr Paul says, if you read it again, you will see that for Luke it is the heart that counts; It is the heart that yields the virtue that Luke treasures in his writings – it is the virtue of perseverance, which we hear right at the very end of the Gospel.

‘As for the part in the rich soil, this is the people with a noble and generous heart, who have heard the Word and take it to themselves and yield a harvest through their perseverance.’

And that is the virtue that the Gospel writer of Luke is asking us to reflect on because for the writer of Luke persecution rather than the pleasures of life is the obstacle to a great harvest.

In our prayer time today, Fr Paul says we might reflect on the virtue of perseverance in our own lives and on the state of our own heart as we receive the word of God.