¹ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
² And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat there; and the whole crowd stood on the beach.
³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow.
⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,
⁶ but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away.
⁷ Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
⁹ He who has ears, let him hear."
¹⁰ Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?"
¹¹ And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
¹² For to him who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
¹⁴ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which says: 'You shall indeed hear but never understand, and you shall indeed see but never perceive.
¹⁵ For this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.'
¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
¹⁷ Truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
¹⁸ "Hear then the parable of the sower.
¹⁹ When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path.
²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.
²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
²³ As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit, and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

• Despite the traditional title as the parable of "the sower", the real focus is on the seeds and their respective yields.
• The assumption is that all the seeds are good, the problem is the type of soil in which the seeds have been sown.
• There is a clear contrast between the ideal disciples who accept and understand the word against those who neither accept nor act upon Jesus' preaching for various reasons: evil activity, personal shallowness, worldly concerns, or desire for wealth.
• According to the traditional Palestinian farming practices, sowing often precedes plowing. We can assume that the sower intended to come back and plow the seeds into the soil. Nevertheless when the seeds already fall on the bad soil they still cannot yield fruitfully even with plowing.
• Mt 13:1-52 features seven parables, the subject matter of the parables is the kingdom of heaven. Every parable except the parable of the sower begins with the phrase: "The kingdom of heaven is like..." However the parable of the sower also clearly shows responses to the kingdom of heaven.

The word of the Lord is the seed, our hearts and minds are the soil. The good spiritual yield in life depends on how much a person willingly accepts and responds to the word of the Lord. The yield arising from the positive response will be abundant beyond all imagination.

1. Deep down in my heart, where do I fit in with the four types of soil in the parable? What are the reasons?
2. In order to let Jesus' word yield abundantly in my spiritual life, what changes do I have to make in my relationship to God and to others, in my interest, and in my career?
3. Imagine I am attending a Sunday's Mass, a priest is delivering a sermon as a sower is sowing the seeds, my ear and my mind is listening to the word as the soil is receiving the seeds. Am I prepared to receive the word? How much do I absorb? Do I still vividly remember the word after leaving the Mass? A week after? How can I become the good soil ready to receive the word?

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A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community