How is religion a source of evil and good?

The parable of the sower in the Gospel reading today seems to be Jesus’ answer to those who doubted the efficacy of the word of God - for in the first reading of today, it is said that “my word that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”

Having said that, there is another line in today’s Gospel - “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak in parables, so that ‘looking they may not perceive, and hearing they may not understand’ -  which seems to imply that God had pre-destined only some people to understand his teachings, or even that only Christians, the chosen pre-destined ones, can understand Jesus’ teaching because they are in some way special.

But is that what Jesus meant?  - the same Jesus, who spoke of wanting everyone to come into his kingdom, even those who did not recognize him (as he teaches in the Parable of the Last Judgement).  So how do we understand this passage?   As I said in a previous Sunday reflection, Jesus too is growing in his understanding of his own mission, and he now seems to realize that whereas he may have originally thought that people would gladly welcome the liberating good news that he was bringing them (Gospel means “good news”), he is gradually beginning to realize that that was not the reality.  Today’s passage on the sower and the different kinds of soils on which the seed of God’s word falls, is therefore an articulation of Jesus’ own acceptance that there were, and can be, all kinds of different responses to his teachings. And therefore, the efficacy of his teachings  (and by implication of the Word of God) is quite dependent on the state of the recipient - that God does not force his way on us, but it is up to us to prepare our soil so that God’s word can be effective in our lives.  

And lest we interpret this passage to say that Christians are the pre-destined ones who are the good soil which give fruit multifold, we might have to remember that Mathew puts this statement of Jesus in the context of a quote from the Old Testament (Isaiah 6:9ff). In the original context in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah was only describing what was actually happening in Israel at that time - and not claiming that anybody was consciously excluded from God’s saving grace.  What further supports this interpretation, is that in many other places in the Gospel (e.g. with Nichodemus (John 2:23-3:21), with the rich young man (Mark 10:17-25), and others, Jesus actually takes a lot of effort to explain what he is trying to teach - but only when he feels the questioner is genuine and not out to catch him and trip him up. So, if Jesus actually meant to explain his teachings only to his close disciples because God had so pre-destined that only they would understand, then why would he make efforts to explain his teachings to others. Could we then ‘translate’ the above statement of Jesus to read as: “You are the fortunate ones who can both hear and understand the secrets of the kingdom of God, while for others these are just parables that they cannot understand because their soils are not ready - so that despite them seeing all that I do, they cannot perceive, and despite hearing all that I teach, they cannot understand”.

It is perhaps sobering to note that what Jesus describes as happening in response to his own teachings, is something we see played out even today.  Haven’t we sometimes asked ourselves how can the messages that religions proclaim be used to do so much evil in our world, even as the same religions impel others to do so much good?  The fact is that we can find these contrasting phenomena in Christianity, Hinduism, Islam and many other religions (and ideologies like Marxism, Capitalism, etc).  For we cannot deny that a dispassionate appraisal of the religious texts of any religion will reveal that there are fault lines in every religion’s approved Scriptures - passages that can be taken to do good, but also passages that could be interpreted to justify doing evil. So, for example, one Christian preacher could use today’s Gospel reading (and others in the New Testament) to condemn all those who do not accept Jesus, and therefore justify destroying these others (as the Catholic Church did during the times of the Crusades or the Inquisition etc), while another would refuse to do that.  And why should we be surprised by this, for the same Jewish scriptures that Jesus believed in and loved, was used by him to preach a message of love, but were used by the High Priests to kill him.

And so while there are many in today’s world who blame the ‘seed’ itself (that in Jesus’ parable symbolises the word of God) and reject religion, there are others who blame the soil (the human hearts) on which it falls.  Perhaps we must be open enough to accept that both are at fault - that the soil of different human hearts responds differently, but also that there are fault lines within religious texts themselves.  Perhaps we need to understand the basic lesson that the Scriptures, the religious institutions (like the institutional Church), and the dogmas of any religion are all meant to help us to experience God.  Like the finger pointing at the moon, let our gaze follow the finger, rather than fight about whose finger is the best, or which finger has the most warts.

First Reading: Isaiah 55: 10-11

 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Second Reading: Romans 8: 18-23

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God;  for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

 

Gospel: Matthew 13: 1-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: 

“Listen ! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up  quickly,  since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns  grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

Then the disciples came and asked him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”  He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to    them it has not been given. For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:

‘You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive. For this people’s heart has grown dull, and their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; so that they might not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn— and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. Truly I tell you, many    prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear   what you hear, but did not hear it.

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is  what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands  it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in  another thirty.”