Dear Parishioners:

Often times Jesus uses stories, images and parables taken from everyday life to communicate and convey his message of love and of the hidden truth about the kingdom of God to us.

Today, Jesus uses one of those parables about seeds and roots to teach us about the Kingdom of God. The parable of the sower and bearing good fruit. The reading tells us about bearing good fruit in our Christian lives. Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel 15:16; “I chose you and commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last.” We are commissioned by Jesus himself to go and preach his Gospel of love and charity and to make disciples of all nations by the way we live our lives, to bear good fruit.

Whoever God calls on this mission he equips and strengthens with his grace and wisdom to do his work. It is always a joy to see the good fruit of our labor doing God’s work in our lives and in the lives of other people.

In our first reading, the word of God, like rain falling on the earth brings forth life. The responsorial psalm continues the theme of the seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.”

In the Gospel, we are told this productivity depends on the type of soil on which the seed falls to yield a fruitful harvest. Jesus talks about the four categories; the path, rocky ground, thorns and good soil.

 These are representatives of us all and the people within the Christian community. People respond to God’s words according to their disposition and readiness to accept the word of God.

 In the first three instances, no fruit to meet God’s standards is produced. In the fourth group there are various levels of productivity. This is the group to which we are called upon to belong. We are choice vines which the Lord has planted and ought to bear the required fruit, the good fruit.

The good soil is the heart, a receptive heart and a fertile heart that produces good fruit. Soil is made good by plowing, weeding, manuring, watering, etc. Likewise, the heart is made good by weeding out our sins, vices and sinful habits. We must water and manure our heart by hearing the Word of God, meditating, receiving the sacraments and keeping to it. 

In other words, we are the good fruits that our parents sowed and planted, watered and nurtured, and eventually yielded good fruits, planted on a good soil.

God is good...All the time

God bless you

Fr. Daniel E. Ogbeifun