Great Lent - Day 2 Gospel Reading

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

As we go through the Great Lent, I would like to concentrate on the Gospel readings during the 50 days. Yesterday I was not able to post anything since I was travelling. Hope this Lenten season  would be blessing to us all.

Tuesday Morning - St. Mark 4:1-20

Today's Gospel reading is all about the Parable of the Four Soils. We all know the parable told by Jesus about a farmer going to his farm to sow his seeds and the seeds falling on different types of soil. I would like to bring your attention to what Jesus means by this parable and its importance during this Lenten season.

This parable has been mostly shown to represent four different ways people respond to God's message. Usually we think that Jesus was talking about four different types of people. But He may also have been talking about

1) different times or phases in a person's life or

2) how we willingly apply God's message to some areas of our life but resist applying it to others.

Examples:

1) When a person is in his/her adolescence, entering a stage when the worldly pleasures hold sway over them, the Word of God is like falling on footpath or on the shallow soil. The Word may sprout but it soon wilted under the pressure of the worldly temptations, since it did not have deep roots. 

2) Most of us are quick to apply the teachings of Jesus in one part of our lives, such as you may be open to God about your future but closed concerning how you spend your money. You may respond like good soil to God's demand for worship but respond like rocky soil to His demand to give people in need.

Worries of life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for things plague our daily lives. This makes our daily life so over-crowded that it leaves no time and space for God's Word and leaves us unfruitful to them.

During this Lenten season, let us make our lives less crowded with pleasures of life and let us give importance to the pleasures of the soul, i.e listening to the Word of God and heeding them in all aspects of our life.

Let this Lenten season be a blessing unto us all.

Your Brother in Christ Jesus

Jobin