Newsletter 16th July 2023 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

· Jesus, the Son of God, indisputably had both the personality and the gift.  Yet when he sowed seed, much of it still ended up as bird food. Consider the   thousands he fed with loaves and fishes, the multitude that heard his sermon on the mount, the throngs that welcomed him on Palm Sunday.  Yet on the day of Pentecost, there were only 120 left in the cenacle, awaiting the Holy Spirit. Notice, though, that the fruit borne by these 120 plants eventually filled the whole world!

· To get the few that bear fruit, lots of seed must be sown by lots of people.  So regardless of whether or not we think we have green thumbs, we are being commanded through this parable to get the seed out there, sowing it everywhere we go, undeterred by the birds, the weeds, and the scorching sun.

· The parable of the Sower has a twofold message: as seed, our job is to get busy growing. As farmers, our job is to get busy sowing.