Parable of the Sower (Mt. 13:1-9)

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.  2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore.  3 And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.  4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up.  5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, 6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.  7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.  8 But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.  9 Whoever has ears ought to hear.”'

Jesus sat by the sea of Galilee and began to teach the crowds that came to him.  The crowd was so large and pressing in on him that he got into a boat so that all who remained on land could see and hear him.  Jesus taught the crowd in parables.  Jesus was speaking to a crowd of mainly rural workers hence a parable with God or Jesus as a Sower would have gotten their attention. In the parable, there were four kinds of ground on which the seeds fell: the hard path, rocky ground, among thorns, and rich soil.  The crowd would have understood what would happen to the seeds in each circumstance.

In Palestine, the fields do not have hedges around them.  They are bordered and crossed by stony paths so some seeds would fall on the paths and the birds would immediately eat them.  In Galilee, the soil was thin and on stony ground so the shoots would quickly spring up but the roots were not deep so the hot Palestinian sun would scorch them so the plants would quickly die.  Palestinian farmers would pull or cut the weeds, but the weeds would choke the young plants as they grew.  The rich soil would produce an abundant harvest.  Jesus invited the crowd to ponder what he said and apply it to their lives.  

Almighty God, sometimes when we hear your word we are like fertile soil and other times we are like the rocky path.  Grant us the grace to be constant in our faith and the desire to hear and receive your word with joy.  This we pray through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.

                Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.