Today's Gospel

Prepare for the Storm

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly, and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of the Gospel by looking for a word, a phrase, or an idea to anchor our day in the life and teachings of Jesus. Today's gospel comes from Matthew 13:1-9.

"That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat there. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying, 'A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, and they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell upon the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them. And other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain. Some a 100-fold, 60-fold, some 30. He who has ears, let them hear.'"

What jumps out at you today? Is there a word or a phrase or an idea that stirs within you? The idea that jumps out at me is that the sower didn't take each seed and place each seed specifically in the richest soil available. The sower went out and he so generously. Very often when people are criticizing ministry, they're like, "Well, they're not as efficient as they could be. They don't want to be like the sower." They want to say, "Okay, we're going to take this seed and we're going to plant it perfectly only in the richest soil." And obviously that is not the way that we're called. We're called to sow generously.

And so to ask yourself two questions today, one, are you sowing generously? And two, where are you? Which seed are you? Are you in the rich soil? If you're not in the rich soil, you're trying to get into the rich soil. The word that jumped out at me today was roots. Those that had no roots, the sun came, scorched them. And if we have no roots, we're vulnerable. We're vulnerable to being scorched by the sun, we're vulnerable to wind, we're vulnerable to storm. We've talked about trees before. Trees with strong roots can weather any storm. So what are the daily habits? What are the roots that you're driving deep into the earth so that you can weather the storms of life, which are inevitable? We may not know when the next one is coming, but we do know a next one is coming. Have a great day and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.