Ordinary things and events often can teach us very valuable lessons and give us deep insights. In today’s Gospel, Christ used the story about a sower to explain how people would respond to his words and teachings. I have always wanted and prayed and struggled to be the good soil into which the seeds of God’s words would fall, bearing fruits thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. But often, I am the thorny ground, where the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word.
Today society is very much different from the times of Jesus. Still, we can learn lessons and gain insights from ordinary and commonplace objects and events. For example, in this highly technology-driven culture we have today, the computer is the most common and ubiquitous appliance or gadget in any home and for most persons. Just as we were made in the image and likeness of our Creator, the computer was made in the image and likeness of its creator, man. A computer in nothing more than a jumble of metal, plastic and wires. That is the body. To function, a computer needs software to run. That is the soul. It needs a variety of applications to do interesting and useful things. That is the spirit. With my computer, I can do wonderful and useful things. But it I feed my computer with garbage and I get garbage out. I can store good things, like memories and knowledge and even wisdom, in my computer. That is the spiritual life. If I fill up the memory of my computer with the inane and mundane, it would have no more space for that which is good and true and beautiful. That is doing spiritual exercises.
Even as I listen to God’s words from thousands of years ago, may I find them resounding in my world today.
And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:1-20