In today’s gospel, the Lord tells his disciples that he spoke to the people in parables because even though they heard they did not understand. Reflecting on this part of the gospel this week, I recalled something that happened in my hometown parish many years ago.

This story involves the sacristan and an altar server. The sacristan at that time was Bernabe, a very good man, although a bit ill-tempered. The altar server, Ramon, was a boy about nine years old who was very innocent and needed help with many things. One day Bernabe was in the church preparing for Mass and Ramon entered the sacristy. Ramon, like any altar server at that church, was expected to put on the robe immediately upon entering the sacristy. As I said before, Ramon was very innocent and needed help with many things. Since there was no other altar server present to remind him that he should put on the robe, he did not do it, and he just stood there. There were only a few minutes left for Mass to start. When Bernabe entered the sacristy and saw that Ramon had not yet put on the robe, showing his irritation, he sarcastically tells him, "Very well, Ramon, wait for me to help you put the robe on." And Bernabe left the sacristy. Ramon did not understand that Bernabe's words meant the opposite.

When the priest enters the sacristy and sees Ramon, he asks him, "Ramon, my son, why have you not yet put on your robe?" Ramon answers, "Because Bernabe told me that he would come back to help me, and I am waiting for him." Poor Ramon. Bernabe should have ended his words to Ramon in the same way the Lord ended the parable of the Sower, "Whoever has ears ought to hear."

One of the reasons the Lord spoke to people in parables was because many of them, despite hearing his words and understanding the meaning, would still choose not to accept them. The Lord says that his disciples had been granted the gift of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven while most people had not. We cannot think that God is partial or biased in sharing his knowledge. That gift was also granted to some other people in the crowds who were willing to receive it. That is why the Lord says at the end of his parable, "Whoever has ears ought to hear."

The parable of the Sower is about hearing, not physically but spiritually. It is about hearing and understanding the Word of God. In the gospels we see that many people failed to recognize the Lord as God and Savior. They failed because of their sins. They did not accept that they were in sin. The same continues to occur today. It is our sin which prevents us from spiritually hearing the Word of God let alone obeying it. Sin drowns out the Word of God.

Saint Paul was aware of people’s sinfulness and considered it when preaching to them. He did not use parables but used elemental tips for faith formation the same way adults teach children to write and read. He wrote to the Corinthians, “I could not talk to you as spiritual people, but as fleshy people, as infants in Christ. I fed you milk not solid food, because you were unable to take it. Indeed, you are still not able, even now, for you are still in the flesh” (1 Corinthians 3, 1-3).

A few months ago, reflecting on the man blind from birth that the Lord healed, I said that if we wanted to get our eyesight fixed for the spiritual world, we then needed to start fixing our spiritual hearing. Today I elaborate on that idea and may add that to fix our spiritual hearing we must leave sin behind.

Let us humbly ask the Lord to grant us his grace to recognize our sin, and specially to leave it behind once and for all, to be able to offer the Word of God a rich soil in our hearts so that it may produce abundant fruit.