In Luke 8:5-15, Jesus shares the powerful Parable of the Sower. A man sows seed. Some seed falls on the path and gets trampled. Some falls on rock and withers. Some falls among thorns and gets choked. But some falls on good soil and yields a hundredfold.
Jesus spoke in parables so He could speak to your heart! He didn’t need overly complicated language to reveal great, profound truths. Seeds, soil, water, a path, things that take root and things that don’t. These images are so simple that a child can understand them!
The Power of a Seed
Jesus talks to us about the seed. The seed is so powerful. When you look at it from the outside, it seems like nothing—just a little thing. But if you really knew the holiness of a seed! An entire forest exists within a seed. If you put an acorn in the ground with the right conditions, it will eventually give you not just a tree, but a whole oak grove. A tiny apple seed has the power to grow an entire orchard. One seed! This is what yielding a hundredfold looks like.
Inside the seed is greatness—the greatness of life!—but this greatness is protected by a hard shell. You put the seed into the soil, with the right nutrients and conditions, and it will start growing. But that growth can only happen because the hard protective outside of the seed softens, and then withers and dies.
In His parable, Christ is talking about the seed that God is planting—the seed of His Word in your heart. If we allow His seed to take root, it will transform us. Here are some seeds from Scripture that may transform you if you allow them to grow and take root:
Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him!
What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The Beauty of Dirt
The Gospel also talks about the fertile ground—the condition the dirt has to be for the seed to grow. Dirt has a bad reputation. Dirty shoes, dirty shirts—you wash them because dirt is supposedly bad. But without dirt, we would have no life!
In Genesis 2:7, we read that God formed man from the dirt of the ground, breathing His own breath of life into him. This shows that no matter how ordinary or seemingly insignificant something is, when it's touched by God's hands, it becomes extraordinary.
There's something so beautiful about dirt. Dirt is beautiful because it receives. The good soil of the parable isn't praised for being flashy or strong. It's praised because it's receptive. It doesn't compete, doesn't argue or resist. It simply opens itself up to whatever falls upon it—rain, seed, sunlight—and quietly transforms what it receives into life. In that way, it's a perfect analogy for the human heart. A heart that has learned humility, stillness, and openness to God becomes like the fertile ground where His grace can take root and grow.
The beauty of dirt is also found in its hiddenness. No one applauds the soil when they see a field of golden wheat. You just thank God for the wheat. The soil works in silence, under the surface, doing sacred work that's unseen. The same is true for our spiritual life. God's most beautiful work in us often happens underground, beneath the surface of our words and actions. In that hidden place, grace softens and breaks down the hardness and the shell of our heart. It heals wounds, and brings forth the quiet miracle of a new self!
This is what the parable is about—your heart. Jesus is asking: What condition is the soil of your heart?
Christ the Sower and the Seed
When the seed meets the soil in the parable, Christ is describing something deeply personal. The seed is the Word of God. The soil is your heart. Each time you hear the Scriptures, each time you pray, each time you come to Divine Liturgy, God is planting Himself inside you.
Notice I said “Himself"—this is not just words. The Logos of God isn't just information or text. It's a person. "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." When the Word falls into your heart, it's really Christ Himself wanting to take root in you. He wants to dwell within you, to grow and transform you into who you're made to be.
The Sower came to earth and He didn't just scatter words. Jesus became the seed Himself. He allowed Himself to be planted into the ground of death on the cross. And from that seed sprang forth the life of the whole world. As it says in John: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit."
Every time we celebrate the Holy Eucharist, and receive the Body and Blood of Christ into the fertile soil of our heart, divine life can grow and bear fruit in us!
Preparing the Soil of Our Heart
The Church is asking: How fertile is your soil to receive the seed? How willing are you to let your hard protective shell fade away, so that the seed of Christ can grow from you?
When the priest says before Holy Communion, "Make me worthy to receive without condemnation Your pure Body and precious Blood,” that's another way of saying, "Lord, make my heart good soil for You.”
St. Nicholas Cabasilas says, "It is no longer bread and wine, but the Body and Blood of Christ that enters into your body and soul, uniting us to Him as members of His body."
If our heart is hard or distracted, we're not going to be changed. The grace is there. The seed is perfect. But our soil needs to be open. Let’s prepare our soil! Prayer breaks open the ground in our souls. Confession removes the rocks that keep us from Jesus. Forgiveness pulls out the thorns. Fasting clears space for new life. Then, when we stand before the chalice, our heart is ready to receive the seed that never dies.
Become living soil and allow Christ to grows in you! His seed bears beautiful fruit: peace in the middle of chaos, forgiveness when we want to be angry and resentful, love even for those who hurt us, and joy that doesn't depend on circumstances.
"It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
May the soil of your heart always be open to receive the seed of Christ!
+Fr. Tom
