GOING OUT TO SOW By Rev.Fr. Valentine de Souza SJ

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME ( A) – 10 July 2011

GOING OUT TO SOW

Matthew  13, 1-23

José Antonio Pagola  

 Translated by Fr. Valentine de Souza SJ

Rev.Fr. Valentine de Souza SJ

Before relating the parable of the sower who went out to sow, the evangelist presents Jesus who "goes out of the house" to meet the people to "sit" leisurely with them, and devotes himself "for a long time" to sowing the Gospel among all kinds of people. According to Matthew,  Jesus is the real sower. We have to learn from him today how to sow the seed of the Gospel.

   The first thing is to leave our homes. It's what Jesus always asks from his disciples: "Go throughout the whole world…" "Go and make disciples…" To sow the Gospel we have to leave our security and our concerns. To evangelize is to move out, to seek to meet people, to communicate with the men and women of today, not to live enclosed in our own ecclesiastical world.

   This reaching out to others is not proselytizing. There is no imposition or winning back. It is to offer people an opportunity to meet Jesus, to learn the Good News and, if they accept it, to be able to help them to live better and more rightly and healthily. That’s what’s important.

   We cannot go out to sow seed unless we have the seed. Before thinking of proclaiming the Gospel to others, we have to accept it in the Church, in our communities, and in our lives. It's a mistake to consider ourselves depositories of Christian tradition with the sole task of transmitting it to others. A Church that does not live the Gospel cannot transmit it. A community that does not breathe an atmosphere that fosters the desire to follow in the footsteps of Jesus cannot invite anyone to follow him.

   The spiritual energies that we have in our communities at times remain untapped, blocked by a general atmosphere of discouragement and disappointment. We have taken to “surviving” rather than to sowing new life. We have to revive our faith.

   The crisis we are experiencing is leading us to the end of a certain kind of Christianity, but also to the beginning of a renewed faith that is more faithful to Jesus and more true to the Gospel. The Gospel has the power to generate new faith in Christ in every age in surprisingly new ways. It does so in our times too.

   But we have to learn to sow it with faith, with common sense and with truth.  To evangelize is not to hand down a legacy, but to lay the ground for the birth of a faith that grows, not as a clone of the past, but as a new response to the Gospel in answer to the problems, the sufferings, the joys, and the hopes of our age. It is not the time to distract people with trifles. It is the time to sow the essence of the Gospel in the hearts of people.

Sow the Gospel of Jesus.

Source: URL of José Antonio Pagola's Buenas Noticias Web site 

http://sanvicentemartirdeabando.org

Website for Spanish original and translations: www.eclesalia.net

Jose Antonio Pagola,  vgentza@euskalnet.net , San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Spain.

English Translation by  (Valentine) Vally de Souza S.J.  vallydesouza@jesuits.net,   Mandal, Gujarat , India