Homily: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
July 12, 2026
My dear brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading of today, Jesus teaches with the parable of the sower. Some preachers suggest that this parable should rather be called the parable of the soil because the emphasis is more on the soil than on the sower, the growth of the some of the seeds and the death of the other seeds were not dependent as such on the action of the sower of the seeds but were dependent more on the condition of the soil. Good soil yielded good fruit while dry, unfertile and thorn-filled soil yielded nothing. This parable invites us to a sincere examination of conscience on our approach to the word of God. Can we in humility and sincerity of heart see ourselves as a good soil that struggles to receive and live the word of God or have we allowed ourselves to turn into a rocky, thorny and unproductive heart that yields nothing?
In this parable under review, Jesus uses different imageries to explain some of the factors that can make a heart unresponsive to the word of God. The first are seeds that fell on the path or road. These paths have been beaten very hard by different feet, motor vehicles, bikes and so on such the chances of productivity have been greatly diminished if not totally removed. This parable makes it clear that one piece of ground cannot be a fertile farm for planting and at the same time be a road for endless thoroughfare. These two preoccupations are mutually exclusive.
The question for us is whether we still preserve the fertility and fecundity of our heart or have we allowed it to be hardened by the passage of many feet and vehicles that harden us and make the reception of the word of God impossible. These hardening feet and vehicle tires can take different forms, they can be unhealthy materials that we devour from the internet, they can be corrupting influences from our peers and friends, they can be a sinful lifestyle that we have allowed to be a habitual part of our life. Brothers and sisters, we need to courageously, firmly and decisively mount a roadblock so that the trespassing of these hardening feet that make the reception of the word of God impossible for us will be stopped.
Jesus further cautions against a rocky heart. Included here are those whose hearts do not have much soil, they do not have manure. Persons in this group have not made effort to cultivate, fertilize and nurture their hearts with the word of God, reception of the sacraments, life of prayer and life of virtue. Yes, they claim to be Christians, but they are very shallow when it comes to actual living of the Christian life. The seed of the word of God planted in them cannot grow because its roots cannot penetrate in their hearts that they have allowed to become a heart of stone. At the face of any temptation, they are lost because the word of God has no root in them.
Another group of persons are those who have allowed the cares, interests, hobbies, and wants of this world to choke their spiritual life. They are preoccupied with many things such that they are too busy for God. Out of the 168 hours in a week, they are too busy to let go of only one hour to fulfill their Sunday obligations. Brothers and sisters, fidelity to our job, mowing the lawn, doing the household chores, going to the gym, details of our personal and family upkeep are wonderful endeavors but if they totally deprive us of our spiritual upkeep, they become disordered and meaningless.
Jesus calls on us in this parable to have a good, receptive and fertile heart. Soil is made good by ploughing, weeding, manuring, watering etc. Likewise, the heart is made good by weeding out our sins, vices and sinful habits. To produce good fruit, we must water and manure our heart by hearing the Word of God, by meditation, by receiving the sacraments, by living a good life. Jesus continues to tell us that those who have, more will be given and they will have abundance while those who do not have, even the little they have will be taken away from them. This is true even in the natural field. A hardworking student, for instance who labors to amass knowledge acquires more knowledge while a lazy one will even forget what he previously learnt. It seems even truer in the spiritual realm. One who prays and practices virtue will climb higher in the ladder of sanctity, while one who does not pray, one who does not practice virtue, will lose even the little he has gained. Every temptation we conquer makes us able to conquer other temptations while every temptation to which we fall makes us less able to withstand others.
