Every rose has it's thorn just like every night has it's dawn. Just like every cowboy sings his sad, sad song, every rose has it's thorn! Love's a game of easy come, easy go, yes, every rose has it's thorn.
These lyrics were sung by the heavy metal band Poison. Yes, the Deacon even knows a few tunes from a heavy metal band. But the lyrics are so true. I know because my wife grows roses in the front yard and indeed they have thorns. Beautiful roses of red and yellow are grown but so grows the thorns. You may also remember that my wife grows a huge vegetable garden on our property and that while wonderful and incredibly fruitful, certain parts of the garden come with briars and stickers and thorns.
As people of faith, we are called to be a rose and not a thorn; we are called to be good soil.
Matthew's Gospel gives us today this very popular parable of the sower and the seed and the soil. Jesus is teaching here about the amazing power of God the Father, present in His ministry. Matthew presents this teaching in three parts: the parable, Jesus' answers and explanations and something called allegorical interpretations. This last part is why Jesus Himself says in this Gospel they look but do not see, they hear but do not listen or understand! This parable indeed requires listening, careful listening. And this parable requires prayer, and this parable requires explanation. Jesus indeed speaks the Word so those of good soil can listen, can pray with this teaching and finally, Jesus, for the first time in Scripture, explains His parable. It is clear from the explanation that comes from the lips of Jesus that we are called to be rich soil. Yes, Jesus wants us to be rich soil so we hear the Word (the seed in this parable), understand it and let it grow in us to bear and yield good fruit. Still Jesus will not force us to be good soil; no, we can be the path, or rocky soil or thorny soil. The choice is ours!
We know today that, if we are indeed good soil, we are to exist side by side with other soil. Today I want to consider the soil that produces good "fruit" and thorns side by side. Isn't this a true metaphor for us today; living in a world while we strive for holiness, while we strive to "glorify the Lord by our life, and yet we exist side by side with those who reject God, by rejecting the teachings of the Church. Yes, you and I are called to be the rose, not the thorn, we are called to be produce from the garden, not the briars and stickers, we are called to good soil, that accepts the Word of God and keep it. And by keep it I mean follow the Word and then share the Word with others.
The thorns that grow side by side with the good harvest can be the evils we confront every day; violence, murder and racism, abortion; to the tune of 50 million babies destroyed in this country alone, over the past 40 years, the cavalier decision by a few to redefine marriage, the less than charitable manner in which the immigrant should be seen as a person first, the insidious practice of discrimination, and I could go on.
What does this mean for us today; in context of today's Gospel lesson, taught in the form of this parable? First we must remember that we strive everyday to be good soil and to produce a harvest 30-fold, or 60-fold and dare I say 100-fold!! We do this by being the rose among the thorn. As a faithful Catholic we defend our faith and the teachings of the Church. We stand against abortion, we defend Church taught doctrine on marriage, we honor the family, we protect children, we aid the sick, dying and elderly, we see the dignity in the immigrant, especially children and mothers on a bus, (you don't fix the problem of immigration by yelling at vulnerable people), we support all efforts to eradicate violence, murder and racism, we fight for a country without a ferocious appetite for the death penalty and we show the face of Christ to all we meet in us. Finally, can we commit today to pray these 21 verses of Matthew 13 at least once this week?
Beautiful roses indeed come with thorns. My wife's bountiful garden comes with briars and stickers. And Jesus taught us today that good soil can come with thorns too. If every rose has a thorn, like the song says, then every thorn has a rose! Be a rose!! Be good soil; and glorify the lord by your life!!!
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