Homily: Becoming Good Soil

Homily:  Becoming Good Soil (Mt 13:1-23)

Today’s Gospel starts, “Jesus left his house.”  Here I am LORD; I left my house, my area of comfort.  I have left my house to come to talk about this parable.

The Gospel has several parables.  They are the parable of the sower, Jesus; the parable of the seed, the gospel; the parable of the soil, the hearers of the word, you and I. Each one of those can be a complete homily.

Jesus explained these parables but I would like to comment on them.  Maybe give this parable a different light.  

In our last year of studies to become a deacons, all of the candidates had to meet with the Bishop.  The deacons from Shreveport went first; Monroe would be a couple of weeks later so the ones who completed the interviews discussed them.  One of the things they told us to prepare for was one question.  What is your Theology? Where will you preach from?   

I went blank, we studied so many theologies.  I didn’t want to sound dumb.  I didn’t want him to say I don’t agree with that theology. 

I prayed about it, asking God to help me identify a theology. The Lord put The greatest commandment in my mind.  

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. And love your neighbor as you love yourself." 

St. Augustine said that Sin is the Absence of Love. My theology is the theology of love.  I knew - This is where I see Christ.  This is what I will find in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

I was the second to last deacon candidate to be interviewed.  Everybody interviewed before me said they were asked that question. I had my answer, i practiced it on my wife. so I was ready. I go to my meeting with the Bishop and he didn’t ask me the question.

From this theology of Love, i want to look at Jesus’ parable of the soils. 

The hard packed soil found on the pathway is a love that has been trampled on, hurt by the world.  It is really hard to know love and share love when your heart has a hard shell of protection. 

The rocky soil is soil that finds Love easy.  Love is easy for them as long as the act of love is not hard.  I can love but don’t ask anything.  I will love as long as I don’t get dirty.  

The soil that is full of weeds and thorns find love easy as well.  However, life gets in the way of love.  Sin and distractions get in the way of love.  Jesus calls them tribulations.  Anxiety, worries, bad habits, vices, everything that is not Christ’s love gets in our way.  Chokes out what we should truly be loving.

The rich soil is the one for which love is easy.  Love is abundant.  Love is unencumbered, nourishing to others, and shared with many.  The little love given to the good rich soil is returned in abundance to many. 

After he told this parable, Jesus explained it to his disciples. Jesus probably saw all these soils in the people in front of him.  He saw those who were hard and could not love.  The Jewish elite who were the priests and pharisees.  He saw the rocky soil in those who would leave him, when it became tough. Those who shouted hosanna and then five days later crucify him.  He saw the thorns in his disciples, one who would betray him for riches, those who would run when he was arrested, and Peter who denied him.  And last, he also saw the good soil; his apostles and martyrs and ministers, the future church who would give everything for the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus sees all of this in us!  So how do we become good soil, how do we become messenger of Christ Love, ambassadors of the Kingdom of Heaven. 

One way is Prayer. it can be a prayer with you whole heart, prayer praising God, prayers of devotion, prayers asking for forgiveness, intercessory prayers.  All given with a pure and sincere heart.

Another way is through the word.  Go to mass as often as possible.  Read the Bible, Read devotional readings.  Dive into the word to know Christ’s message of love.

A third is the Sacraments.  Baptism,  Confirmation, Holy Matrimony, Holy Orders, Anointing of the Sick, Reconciliation, and the Eucharist.

I would like to speak about reconciliation and confession!!!  Early in my deacon formation, I went to confession.  In it I told my confessor that being raised Baptist reconciliation was hard.  For my penance, the priest told be to do a homily about reconciliation.  So everyone here is going to be part of my penance.

Why did I have a hard time with confession?  I did not want to leave my house.  My house was comfort and easy.  Many have a house of comfort and easy.   Let me tell you how my house was built.

I was raised by a Baptist minister.  I would pray and asked God’s forgiveness.  It is not wrong we pray and ask God for forgiveness. Do it every day. The problem is that in yourself you can justify your sins.  If you don’t voice them and take ownership they can become acceptable.  We see this everyday in our society.  We live in an individualistic world. the  “I” becomes the most important.  We forget to love God, love our neighbor, and even forget to love ourselves as Christ wants us to. So if it makes you feel good then it must be OK.  It becomes hard to cross the threshold of confession.

My confession today is not the same as my confession 20 years ago.  However, Pope Benedict XVI said that confession was like housecleaning.  We clean the big and the small.  Have you ever seen how dust can add up? It can turn even the whitest of walls black.

So the same goes for keeping our soil rich.  We need to make sure we break up the small sins that build up and make us hard.  We need to pull out the rocks that can make us shallow.  We need to clean out the thorns and weeds that choke our love.  This is the gift of reconciliation when we say out loud these are my sins, take ownership, and receive forgiveness. 

We cannot be good soil without love.  We cannot be good soil living with sin that keeps us from love.  We cannot be good soil if we do not heal and healing can only be found in forgiveness which is a grace from God. 

As a the son of a Baptist preacher, there is a poem by Poet Langston Hughes who was raised a Baptist in Mississippi, that I love.  It's title - Prayer.  

I ask you this,  

Which way to go
I ask you this,
Which sin to bear, 
Which crown to put upon my hair.  
I do not know Lord God,
I do not know. 

In the sacrament of reconcilation, we don’t have to wear our sins, we don’t have to know which one should sin should be bear. In confession, we take ownership of our sins and by Christ’s authority we are forgiven. 

Jesus looks at us and sees all the different types of soil that we are.  For this he gave us the Church. The Church in it wisdom gives us the Sacraments. The Sacraments are the visible signs of our love and Christ’s love.  In these we become good soil.

The biggest and most powerful love we have is the Eucharist.  It is Christ who is with us, part of us, and part of all gathered together.  How can we not love with Christ as part of us?   Amen