A Homily for Sexagesima Sunday

​+ The Parable of the Sower, with which the liturgical tradition of our Holy Mother the Church seeks literally to edify us throughout this Sexagesima Sunday, is replete with stark challenges: faith and salvation come from a fruitful reception of the Word of God. For this good soil is necessary. The devil works assiduously to prevent God’s Word taking root in us, providing more than enough distractions in the allurements of the world and of the flesh which can themselves take root and even suffocate the life of God’s Word in our souls. The fact is, Our Lord teaches us frankly today, that much seed that is sown never grows to maturity or bears fruit; rather, it perishes. The gift of faith received in baptism too often fails to grow, or is choked, to the eternal peril of many.
 
This is a terrifying prospect, and it should rightly rekindle our vigilance in respect of ourselves and of those for whom we have responsibility according to our particular vocation. So too, it should renew our missionary zeal – in this instance, perhaps primarily within the household of the faith. The lukewarm or lapsed have need of our encouragement (and our example) to root out the weeds that have overgrown their souls so that the Word of God may freely grow to fruition in them.
 
As we prepare for Lent, this stark reminder may well give us more than enough to contemplate and to turn into concrete action in respect of our Lenten disciplines – Spring is the time to weed the garden, to prune and to manure so as to foster new growth with a view to producing good fruit.
 
But as we know, this can be much easier to do in a garden than in ourselves. The roots of our weeds often go very deep and resist our efforts (that may well be too feeble) to extract them. The idea of pruning is good; but in reality pruning involves cutting away a good deal, and it hurts. And yes, adding nourishment is all to the good, but if the weeds have not been uprooted, this can foster their growth even more. Our concupiscence, our weakness, our tendency to settle back into habits of sin, our very powerlessness in the face of all that the world, the flesh and the devil proffer, can mean that a Lent zealously begun can result in an Easter garden brimming with weeds growing more abundantly than before!
 
It is perhaps consoling that St Paul knew this reality only too well in himself. After his long boast in this morning’s Epistle he admits to having been given “a thorn … in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.” “Three times” St Paul “besought the Lord about this, asking that it should be taken away.”
 
We do not know what St Paul’s thorn in the flesh in fact was – ultimately it does not matter. But the Lord’s response to St Paul’s repeated demands for it to be taken away is profoundly instructive: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.”
 
My brothers and sisters, rightly do we prepare for Lent by fortifying our wills and focusing our resolve to weed out vice and foster the growth of virtue in any and all of the areas necessary. But St Paul teaches us something more – indeed something more important: he teaches us, in our weakness, amidst the battle and wounded as we may well be, to rely on the grace of Almighty God, and not on ourselves. He teaches us to have the humility of creatures before our Creator; to allow ourselves to be saved, rather than to pretend to be the Saviour. For ultimately, it is God’s grace at work in us that will perfect us, not ourselves.
 
This is a fine distinction. We must rely on Almighty God whilst at the same time doing all that we can to open ourselves to His action within us. If my draft list of Lenten observances is already several pages long and they are known by all, it may well be that they themselves are growing like weeds. If I am preparing humbly to do battle in one or two important areas, perhaps even to ask the Lord for a third or even a fourth time to remove some thorn in the flesh, it may well be that His grace will take root and grow, and indeed flower in ways I cannot at present foresee.
 
Our Lord explains that the grain in the Parable of the Sower that fell into good soil represents “those who, hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.” Holding fast to the Word of God, Whom we encounter in the worship, life and teaching of the Church, with an honest and good heart, and bringing forth fruit with patience and perseverance – this is our task, before, during and after Lent! For the grace we each need, and for the humility to receive it, let us beg Almighty God at His altar this morning, confident indeed that His grace is sufficient for each one of us, and that His power can be made perfect in our weakness. +