• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province

The Love that Compels

  • Online Masses
    • Passionist Online Masses and Services
  • 300th Jubilee
    • Opening Mass of the Passionist Jubilee Year
    • Video: 300th Jubilee – English
    • Video: Jubileo Pasionista – Español
    • Jubilee Icon Itinerary
    • Jubilee Resources
    • Jubilee Song
  • Pray
    • Daily Reflections
    • Prayer Request
    • Sunday Homily
    • Passionist Spirituality and Prayer
    • Stations of the Cross
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
  • Grow
    • Journey into the Mystery of Christ Crucified
    • Celebrating the Feast of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Subscribe to E-News
    • Passionist Magazine
      • Passionist Magazine, Spring 2020
    • Passionist Ministries
      • Preaching
      • Hispanic Ministry
      • Haiti
      • Parish Life
      • Earth and Spirit Center
      • Education
      • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Retreat Centers
    • Passionist Solidarity Network
    • Sacred Heart Monastery
      • History of Sacred Heart Monastery
      • A Day in the Life of Senior Passionists
      • “Pillars” of the Community
  • Join
    • Nicholas Divine, CP, Ordination to the Diaconate
    • Are You Being Called?
    • Discerning Your Call
    • Pray With Us
    • Passionist Vocation Directors
    • Lay Partnerships
  • Connect
    • Find a Passionist
    • Passionist Websites
    • Fr. Cedric Pisegna, CP, Live with Passion!
    • Passionist Alumni Association
      • Reunions
      • 2019 Passionist Alumni Reunion
      • Welcome
      • Letter from the Provincial
        • These Men We Call Our Brothers
      • Mission Statement
      • CrossRoads Bulletin
      • Alumni Enrollment Form
        • Alumni Survey
      • Reunion Photo Gallery
  • Support
    • Donate
    • Monthly Giving
    • Leave a Legacy
      • Giving Matters
      • Ways to Give
      • Donor Relations
      • Testimonials
    • Prayer and Seasonal Cards
    • Privacy Policy Statement
  • Learn
    • Our Founder
    • History
    • The Letters of St. Paul of the Cross
    • The Diary of St. Paul of the Cross
    • Mission and Charism
    • Saints and Blesseds
    • FAQs
    • Find a Passionist
    • STUDIES IN PASSIONIST HISTORY AND SPIRITUALITY
  • Safe Environments

Daily Scripture, September 17, 2016

Scripture:sowing-seeds

1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49
Luke 8:4-15

Reflection

God’s word—God’s very being, God’s very life—is hidden away in each of us like a seed waiting to sprout, take root, and blossom into something truly good and beautiful. That is the message of today’s gospel, the well-known parable of the sower and the seed. Like any gospel, it’s good news because it says that the God who loves us and lives within us wants to come fully to life in each of us.

But, like any parable, there is much in this gospel story that makes us uneasy. Indeed, we may even protest that what Jesus narrates is horribly unfair because the seeds have no say in where they are sown; where they fall seems entirely at the whim of the rather careless sower. Some seeds are trampled before they even have a chance to grow. Some land on rocky ground; they struggle to live, but die from lack of moisture. Other seeds are flung among thorns where any promise of life is slowly choked out of them. Very few seeds find themselves in soil where they can grow and blossom and flourish as seeds are meant to do. We are prompted to ask: “Why didn’t the sower do a better job with the sowing?”

And yet, before we object too much, isn’t it true that we can see ourselves in each example of sowing? Don’t we sometimes “receive the word with joy” but “fall away in time of temptation”? And aren’t we sometimes like those that Jesus says hear God’s word but allow it to wither in them because of the “anxieties and riches and pleasures of life”? Perhaps the parable’s point is that just as we do not sow the seed, neither do we harvest it. We should, as Jesus teaches, embrace God’s word “with a generous and good heart,” doing all we can to nurture and care for it. But ultimately a fruitful harvest—God coming fully to life in us—is much more God’s work than our own.


Paul Wadell is Professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College in De Pere, Wisconsin, and a member of the extended Passionist family.

Footer

Facebook Feed

Support the Passionists

Contact the Passionists

The Passionists of Holy Cross Province
660 Busse Highway | Park Ridge, IL 60068
Tel: 847.518.8844 | Toll-free: 800.295.9048 | Fax: 847.518.0461
Safe Environments | Board Member Portal | Copyright © 2021 | Log in