The Parable of the Sower
Courageous survivor and journalist Kay Ebeling, in her latest blog post at the excellent City of Angels blog, writes about how the priest mangled Matthew’s version of the Parable of the Sower when she went to her old parish recently. If you’ve ever seen a Catholic lectionary, you might notice that almost all the readings skip around. Very rare is it to find a reading without serious editing.
But there’s another version of the same parable that’s a little different, in Luke, chapter 8. It is much the same except there is no mention at all of the harvest, just that the seed sown on the good ground produced a crop “a hundred times more than was sown.”
The interesting thing is that it’s followed by one of the most enigmatic passages in the entire Bible. One that I’m sure is never quoted in church:
When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given
to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
“‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’” (Luke 8:8-10 NIV)
Yes, dear friends, it seems that Jesus did not want everybody to understand what he was really saying, and says so in other never-quoted passages, too. He was quoting from Isaiah 6:9:
He (God) said, “Go and tell this people:
” ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken. (Isaiah 6:9-12 NIV)
In other words, according to the Bible, God does not want the worst sinners to be saved, but to continue in their wickedness until they are completely destroyed. Perhaps that’s why the Church cannot change its ways?
That the Catholic Church really is that evil, please see the latest guest editorial by Vinnie Nauheimer, “I Accuse!“