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Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Mk 4:1-20): On another occasion Jesus began to teach by the sea (…). And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. (…)."

Parable of the Sower: an “autobiographical” passage of Jesus

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, Jesus recounts to the crowd the well-known Parable of the Sower. In a certain way it is an “autobiographical” passage, for it reflects the very experience of Jesus, of his preaching. He identifies himself with the sower who scatters the good seed of the Word of God and notes the different effects it obtains, in accordance with the way in which people hear the proclamation.

With the purpose of speaking about the salvation, the experience which happens anew every year in the farming world is evoked here: a sowing that is followed by tears, as you throw away what could still be made into bread, risking a wait full of uncertainty. The farmer works, he prepares the soil, he scatters the seed but he doesn’t know where the seed is going to fall, if the birds will eat it, if will take root, if it will grow and become a stalk…

-To scatter the seed is an act of faith and hope: year after year the farmer repeats the same action and scatters the seed. This procedure was familiar to Jesus and He talked to his followers about it.