Hard Ground, Rocky Ground, Thorny Ground, Rich Ground. Which Am I?

On this Known by Name Weekend, Fr. Martin reflects on a recent trip to Kauai, where daily rain transforms the island into a lush, blooming paradise. Drawing from the Prophet Isaiah and the Parable of the Sower, he explores how God's word is like that rain — always given generously, but only fruitful depending on the condition of the soil it falls on. 

Fr. Martin walks through the four types of ground Jesus describes (hard, rocky, thorny, and rich) and invites listeners to honestly ask: what soil am I right now? He closes with real stories from the parish of hearts being softened and transformed, and a hopeful reminder that we don't have to till the soil ourselves — we just have to let God in.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Good morning. Uh today we celebrate our known by name weekend, which normally we do on the first weekend of the month, but because we're welcoming Father Arundas today, we thought it'd be a good idea so that he could be able to greet you by name and you could be able to greet him by name as well. I know at the beginning of the mass we already asked one another, you met somebody new and asked, How can I pray for you? So maybe what we can do now is just ask another simple question. I know during the summer many people take vacation or take some time off. So maybe the question we can ask now is, are you taking any vacation this summer? And if you are, where, you know, where are you going? So you can ask the same person that you met at the beginning of the mass, or you can meet somebody new. Let's just take one minute to ask that question. Are you taking any time off this summer? And if you are, where are you going? So go ahead. Okay, all right. Let's bring it back. Let's bring it back. It sounds like you guys are having great conversations there about your plans for vacation. All right. Did anybody go anywhere exciting? Anywhere exciting? No? Just the couch at home? All right. Well, um during the oh, you want to share? Okay, where you where'd you go? You're gonna go to Legoland? Can I come too? Um, great. Well, I'm I'm I hope you guys have some great plans for some time off this summer. You know, during this summer, I have the opportunity to go to the island of Kauai. Have you ever heard of Kauai before? And I went as part of this uh program called Clergy Hospitality. So there's this gentleman who's a Catholic, and he owns uh different hotels around the United States, and he owns this hotel in in Kauai. And he has this program where he has a chapel in the hotel, like a Catholic chapel with an altar and everything like that. And so a priest comes and celebrates Mass, the days that he's there for the people who come to the hotel and who want to come to Mass, then the priest can stay at that hotel during the during the stay. So I had a chance to participate in that program. Now, uh, I don't know how many people here have ever been to Kauai or heard of Kauai before. Okay, one of the islands in the Hawaiian Islands. Now, if you do know something about that island, you know that it rains a lot, doesn't it? It rains like basically every day. Every day it rains, and it could be sunny at one moment, and like and the next second it's downpouring rain, and within a few moments later, it's back to back to sunny again. Uh, but also that's the reason why the island is so lush and green and full of plants and flowers. I I took a few pictures and I want to share with you a few of the pictures that um I took during my during my trip. So let's see if we can bring uh one of those pictures. Um I love like the deep red of those. Isn't that beautiful? The deep red of those those plants, just wow, incredible. Um let's go to the next one. This was uh just right outside my my room. There's this beautiful flower. It's like, oh, God's gift to me, you know? And so I took a picture of uh this yellow uh flower, love that. And I'll show you one last view of from the hotel. Yeah, isn't it? I I heard some of you like, oh um, one of the views from the from the hotel, and as you can see, it's so green and lush, and it's got those white flowers on those trees. There's a name for them. I don't know what the name uh for those flowers is. I don't know if anybody here knows the name of that flower. What's that? Plumeria. Okay, you guys are the experts. I'm not. I just I just think it's a beautiful flower, you know. Um so many beautiful plants and flowers and trees on the island. And part of the reason why it's so lush and green is because of the rain, all the rain. And we heard today the word of God say the word of God is like a generous rain coming down upon the earth. Can I invite you to read with me these words from the prophet Isaiah? Let's bring it on the screen. That speaks about the word of God like a generous rain. Let's read this together. Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. The word of God is like a generous rain that comes down on the soil of our souls. Now, God's rain is always generous, but there is a problem. This is the problem. Not all soil is created the same. There's different soils, right? There's good soil and then there's soil. Not so good soil. There's good soil and and other soil. Thank you. Good soil and other soil. You got it. And that's why Jesus in the gospel shares with us four kinds of soil in which the word of God falls down. So I've summarized the four soils in this way. We're gonna bring it on the screen, the four kinds of soils that Jesus says. Okay, we can read this together. The hard ground, the rocky ground, the thorny ground, and the rich ground. Okay, four kinds of ground, four kinds of soil. And I'll just break it down really quick, you know, what each one represents. It represents the state of the human heart. So the first one, the hard ground represents the hard heart, the hard heart. So the word of God tries to enter, but can it enter? No, because it's hard, right? Okay. The next one, the rocky ground. So for the rocky ground, the seed of God and the seed of the word of God, the water enters and it sprouts up. But because the roots are not deep, what happens to the plant? It withers and dies, gets scorched by the sun. And the sun represents the trials, the temptations, the tribulations of life, it gets scorched. Alright, the third one is the thorny ground. The seed, the water falls down, the plant comes up, but it gets choked by temptation and sin and anxieties and worries, and finding the rich ground which bears 30, 60, or 100fold of fruit. So here's a question for you. Which soil do you think you are? You don't have to answer out loud, it's okay. Just take a moment to think. And you just your honest self-reflection in your heart, your mind, your soul, what soil do I think I am? You can you can keep that close to your heart, that's okay. Um, I would say for me, in different uh times and stages of my life, I have been all of those types of soil in different stages of my life. Sometimes I've had a hard heart. Uh sometimes the temptations or tribulations of life they scorch me. Sometimes the anxieties get the better of me. I'm choked by the thorns, and sometimes I'm the rich soil that bears fruit, as the gospel says, 30, 60, or 100fold. Sometimes I'm the good soil, but I'm not always the good soil. So, again, the question what soil do you think you are? Does anyone feel brave enough to answer? That's okay, you don't have to. Just you can keep it there. All right. So maybe uh some there's somebody here that says, Father, I would love to be the rich soil, the rich ground where the rain of the word of God falls, but honestly, I think I'm one of the other three. I think I'm one of the other three. Now, if that's the case, I want to share with you something that Father Arundas shared in his mass this morning. He had the eight o'clock mass this morning, gave the homily, and he shared this. That it really struck me that when I heard it, he said, God does not give up on the soil. God does not give up on the soil. So if you're the rocky soil, the thorny soil, the hard soil, God does not give up on you. God does not give up on you. You know, uh in our parish, there are some stories of how God does not give up on the soil. I just want to share a few of them with you. There was a family that came here for our children's faith formation. And they share with me, Father, we came to uh your church and we signed up for the program and we came just to to check off the boxes to come to mass, you know. Have you ever done that before? Checked off the boxes? You know, coming to mass, coming for obligation. And they said their experience was so good, Father. We we come now not because we have to, we come because we want to. And they're taking their next steps to serve and get involved and be active in our parish. That's an example of God killing the soul. Uh, there's another person. Um I'm looking in the direction of where the person is, but I won't point. Over here somewhere. Um, this person came to our church on one of our known by name weekends, like today, you know? And and she was uh she was a church shopping, just exploring different churches, don't know where I'm gonna go. She happened to come on one of our known by name weekends. So wow, was so struck by the sense of community here, getting to know other people. And then she went on an alpha course 11 weeks, her faith got on fire, and now she's taking her next steps to serve and get involved and be active in her faith over here somewhere. Yeah. And I'll share one last one. Um over on this side somewhere. The person who had had been away from the church for many years. Many years. Came back, somebody invited her to the alpha course, and now she's she's active, she's involved. Actually, I'm thinking you have two people. One who's over here, and then another who is I won't share anymore because I didn't ask permission to share this story, so but she's back. She's active, she's involved, she's here, she's present, she loves this community. And there's this last one, this lady who's away for over a decade. Someone invited her back, went to alpha, came to church, loved it. And then somebody invited her to go get donuts. So she went and go get donuts. And of course, you know, here we don't just give out a donut, we give out like a box of donuts, right? And so somebody came and gave her a box of donuts. And after all of that, after alpha, after the mass, after the box of donuts, she started to cry. She started to weep out of gratitude for what she experienced and for what she had missed over ten years of being away from the church. All these are examples of God tilling the soil, planting the seed, and watering it so that it bears great fruit. And you know what? This is God's desire for each and every single one of us as well. For the toil, the seed, the soil of our hearts to be tilled, the seed of God to enter the water of the Word of God to bear great fruit. You know, if you're you're listening today, you say, Father, you know, I'm one of the other soils, but I want to take that next step and I want to be the rich soil. I'm gonna invite you to take the next step right now. God does not give the next step, you want to be that rich soil. I'm gonna invite you to pray with me right now. I'm gonna enter a moment of prayer, I'm gonna pray with you and pray for you, and ask the Lord that we might be the rich soil. If you feel comfortable, I'm gonna invite you to just uh close your eyes with me, and I'm just gonna say this prayer uh with and for you. Lord our God, we just give you thanks and praise because you are so, so good to each and every single one of us. Jesus, you are the sower. You sow the seed of your word. Allow generous rain to come down so that it would bear great fruit. And Lord, uh, I just want to give you thanks because you do not give up on the soil. And even though we may sometimes be the hard soil, the rocky soil, the thorny ground, you don't give up on us. You till the earth, you till the ground, so that your seed, the seed of God's word, can enter. Lord, if there's somebody here today who has been touched by the word of God that they heard today and wants to be the rich soil, we ask that you would enter into their hearts. Fill the ground, open their hearts to receive the generous rain of your grace, the seed of your word, so that it would bear great fruit, a hundred and sixty, thirty-fold, and be as beautiful as those plants and flowers and trees that we we saw here today. We ask the intercession of Mary, our mother, to pray for us, Saint Joseph, our patron, and all the angels and saints in heaven. And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.