Sexagesima Sunday AD 2024

The traditional Gospel for Sexagesima Sunday is Jesus' parable of the Sower. Since Jesus himself explains this parable, it is not difficult for us to understand it: the seed that is sown is the word of God, and different soil is different people who either receive the word of God or not. Unfortunately, there are not many whose heart’s soil is fertile enough to bear fruit a hundredfold.

However, there is a strange, even disturbing sentence in today's Gospel. When the disciples of Jesus ask Him what the parable means, Jesus first says: “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”

Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Aren’t parables meant to help people understand better? Jesus has two things in mind here. First, that He wants His disciples to follow not only the letter of His word, but its meaning – and for that, it is necessary to understand it. And secondly: the text of parables is always deeper and has more layers than it seems at first glance.

So it is also with the Parable of the Sower. Although its primary meaning is exactly as Jesus explains, there is also a deeper message hidden in it, which we can only understand if we know that in the Gospels Jesus not only compares the word of God to a seed, but also says that He Himself is like a seed, which falls to the ground and dies to bear the fruit of eternal life to all who believe in Him and follow Him.

Jesus wants His word to bear good fruit in us and in our lives – the fruit of love, goodness, joy and peace. But He also wants us, following His own example, to become a seed, from which the fruit of eternal life will sprout for those around us. We can bear this fruit only if we faithfully give testimony to Him and proclaim His death and His resurrection through our words and deeds.