FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
ON EVANGELIZATION AND MISSION
(Part 122)
SOWING THE SEED
January 29, 2020
Today’s gospel: Mark 4:1-20
Christians, who belong to a missionary Church, are supposed to proclaim the gospel. Faith comes from hearing and what is heard is the word of God. So “the sower sows the word.” (v.14). Sowing the word is intended to lead to salvation, and so the enemy opposes this work. What prevents us from acting on the word that is preached are the world, the flesh and the devil.
* The world causes the word to be “sown among thorns” (v.18). The result? “Worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit.” (v.19).
* The flesh causes the word to be “sown on rocky ground” (v.16). The result? They hear the word and receive it with joy “but they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” (v.17).
* The devil, as soon as people hear the word, “comes at once and takes away the word sown in them.” (v.15).
Do we wonder then that evangelization is so challenging, that many people we speak to are not receptive, that our efforts oftentimes bear no seeming fruit? Why should we continue to devote our time, energy and resources to this work and persist in sharing Christ?
First, because this is the only way to salvation. Jesus sends us, we preach, people hear, they believe, they call upon the name of the Lord, they are saved. If we do not even try, then people will not hear the word and will remain in sin and darkness. We have been saved by Jesus, and we should desire what is in his heart, that all be saved.
Second, because there will be those who will be receptive to the word and eventually live it out. There will be rich soil on which the seed is sown. And “those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” (v.20). We proclaim the word and God provides the fruit.
Third, because we have been entrusted with the gospel and commissioned to proclaim it to the world. We are the ones, having been evangelized ourselves, who understand the workings of salvation. “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you.” (v.11a). This is our privilege, but also our great responsibility. And woe to us if we do not proclaim the gospel.
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