GRM 180.4-6 · Volume 3
The Gospel as revealed to me
Quotation
Peter blushes so much that he seems to be having a stroke of apoplexy. He remains dumb for a few moments, then says: «Well, then, give me my reward. The parable of this morning…»
Also the others join Peter saying: «Yes, You promised. Parables serve very well to make people understand the comparison. But we know that they have a higher meaning than the comparison.
180.5
Why do You speak to them in parables?»
«Because they are not to understand more than I explain. You are granted much more, because as My disciples, you must be acquainted with the mystery; and you are therefore given to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why I say to you: “Ask Me if you do not understand the spirit of the parable”. You give everything and everything is given to you, that you, in your turn, may give everything. You are giving everything to God: love, time, interests, freedom, lives. And God gives you everything to reward you and to enable you to give everything in the name of God to those who come after you. Thus, to him who has given will be given abundantly. But he who gave only partly or did not give at all, will be deprived also of what he has.
I speak to them in parables, so that, while seeing, they may see only what is illuminated by their will to adhere to God, and while listening, always through the same will of adherence, they may hear and understand. See! Many hear My word, few adhere to God. Their spirits lack goodwill. Isaiah’s prophecy[2] is fulfilled in them: “You will hear with your ears and will not understand, you will look with your eyes and will not see”. Because these people are hard-hearted; their ears are hard and their eyes are closed, so that they may not see and hear, that they may not understand with their hearts and convert, that I may cure them. But you are blessed because your eyes see and your ears hear, and because of your goodwill! I solemnly tell you that many Prophets and many just people were anxious to see what you see and they did not see it, and to hear what you hear and they did not hear it. They pined away with the desire to understand the mystery of the words, but as soon as the light of the prophecy went out, the words remained like burnt out coals, also for the holy man who had received them.
Only God reveals Himself. When His light fades out, as soon as the purpose of illuminating the mystery comes to its end, the inability to understand envelops the regal truth of the word received, like the bandages of a mummy. That is why I said to you this morning: “The day will come when you will find everything I have given you”. Now you cannot remember. But later light will come upon you, not just for a moment, but for an inseparable union of the Eternal Spirit with yours, whereby your teaching concerning what pertains to the Kingdom of God will be infallible. And what applies to you, will also apply to your successors, if they live of God as of one bread only.
180.6
Now listen to the spirit of the parable.
We have four kinds of fields: the fertile ones, the thorny ones, the stony ones and the ones full of paths. We also have four types of spirits.
There are the honest spirits, the spirits of goodwill, prepared by their own will and by the work of an apostle, of a “true” apostle; because there are apostles who have the name but not the spirit of an apostle and they are more lethal for the will in formation, than birds, thorns and stones, They upset in such a way, through their intolerance, their haste, their reproaches and their threats, as to drive people away from God forever. There are others who, on the contrary, through an excess of benignity, utterly out of place, cause the seed to rot in too soft a soil. Because of their lack of vigour, they kill the vigour of the souls they cure. But let us consider true apostles, that is, the shining mirrors of God. They are paternal, merciful, patient, and at the same time they are strong, as their Lord is strong. Now: the souls prepared by them and by their own will can be compared to the fertile fields, free from stones and brambles, from couch-grass and darnel, in which the word of God thrives and every word, that is every seed, bears a bundle of ears, yielding in some places one hundred, in others sixty per cent. Are there any like that among those who follow Me? There certainly are. And they will be holy. They come from all castes and countries. And there are Gentiles among them and they will yield one hundred per cent because of their goodwill, only because of that, or because of their goodwill and that of an apostle or disciple who prepares them for Me.
The thorny fields are those in which thorny tangles of personal interests, which suffocate the good seed, have been allowed to grow by carelessness. You must watch yourselves all the time. Never say: “Oh! I am well formed, I have been sown, I can rest assured that I will bear seeds of eternal life”. Watch yourselves; the struggle between Good and Evil is still on. Have you ever watched a colony of ants that install themselves in a house? There they are, near the fireplace. The housewife takes all foodstuff away from there and puts it on the table. They sniff the air and attack the table. The housewife puts the food in a cupboard and they get into the cupboard through the keyhole. The woman hangs her food supply from the ceiling, and they go a long way along walls and beams, down the rope and reach the food. The woman burns them, scalds them, poisons them. And thinking that she has destroyed them she is happy. But if she does not watch, what a surprise she gets! The new hatched ones come out and she has to start all over again. And that is what happens while you live; you must be careful and uproot the evil weeds as soon as they come up. Otherwise they will form a ceiling of brambles which suffocate the corns. Worldly cares, deceiving wealth form the tangle, suffocate the seed of God and prevent it from coming into ears.
And here are the fields full of stones. How many there are in Israel! They are the ones that belong to the “children of the laws” as My cousin Judas quite rightly said. In them there is not the one Stone of Witness, nor the Stone of the Law. There is the quarry poor petty human laws made by men. They are so many that with their weight they have broken also the Stone of the Law into chips. A disaster which does not allow the seed to take root. The root is no longer nourished because there is neither soil nor sap. The water stagnating on the stone pavement causes the seed to rot, the sun makes the stones hot and parches the little plants. Such are the spirits of those who put complicated human doctrines in place of the simple doctrine of God. They even receive My word with joy. At first it shakes and allures them. But later… They would need to be heroes and work hard to clean the field, their souls and minds of all rhetorical stones. The seed would then take root and bear long spikes. As it is… it bears nothing. The fear of human retaliation is enough. It is enough to say: “And after? What will the mighty ones do to me?” and the poor seed languishes without nourishment. It is enough for the whole quarry to stir with the vain sound of the hundreds of precepts, which have been put in place of the Precept, that man perishes with the seed received.. Israel is full of them. That explains why the coming to God is in inverse ratio to human power.
The last are the dusty barren fields full of roads. Those of worldly selfish people. Their comfort is their law, enjoyment their aim. Their ambitions: to do no work, to slumber, to enjoy themselves, to feast… The spirit of the world is their king. The dust of worldliness covers the soil which becomes mouldy. Birds, that dissipation, rush onto the thousand paths which have been built to make life easier. The spirit of the world, that is, of the Evil one, picks up and destroys all the seed that falls on this soil open to all sensuality and laxity…
Detail
Jesus has just complimented Peter and Simon, and Andrew's brother takes the opportunity to ask for an explanation of the parable of the sower.
Annotation
Give me the reward. This morning's parable... Peter reminds Jesus of his promise to explain to them the parable of the sower.(EMV 179.5). (See Matthew 13:10-11).
Gospel of Matthew 13,10-23
Mt 13:10-23: The disciples came to Jesus and said, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" He replied, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but not to these. To him who has, it will be given, and he will have plenty; to him who does not have, it will even be taken away. If I speak to them in parables, it's because they look without looking, and listen without hearing or understanding. And so Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled for them: You may listen, but you will not understand. No matter how you look, you will not see. The hearts of these people have grown heavy: they have become hard of hearing, they have closed their eyes, lest their eyes should see, their ears should hear, their hearts should understand, they should be converted - and I will heal them. But as for you, blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear! Amen, I say to you: many prophets and righteous men have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it; to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.
So listen to what the parable of the sower means. When someone hears the word of the Kingdom without understanding it, the Evil One comes and seizes what is sown in his heart: he is the sown field by the side of the road. The one who received the seed on stony ground is the one who hears the Word and immediately receives it with joy; but he has no roots in him, he is the man of a moment: when distress or persecution comes because of the Word, he immediately stumbles. The one who received the seed in the brambles is the one who hears the Word; but the cares of the world and the seduction of wealth choke the Word, and it bears no fruit. The one who has received the seed in the good soil is the one who hears the Word and understands it: he bears fruit at the rate of a hundred, or sixty, or thirty to one."
Gospel of Mark 4:10-20
Mk 4, 10-20 : When he was left alone, those around him with the Twelve asked him about the parables. He said to them: "The mystery of the kingdom of God is given to you; but to those outside, everything is presented in the form of parables. And so, as the prophet says: They may look with all their eyes, but they will not see; they may listen with all their ears, but they will not understand; or else they will be converted and receive forgiveness."
Then he said to them: "Don't you understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the Word. There are those who stand by the wayside where the Word is sown: when they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away the Word sown in them. And in the same way, there are those who received the seed in stony places: when they hear the Word, they immediately receive it with joy; but they have no root in them, they are people of a moment; whether distress or persecution comes because of the Word, they immediately stumble. And there are others who have received the seed in the briers: these hear the Word, but the cares of the world, the seduction of wealth and all other lusts invade them and choke the Word, which bears no fruit. And there are those who have received the seed in the good soil: these hear the Word, they welcome it, and they bear fruit: thirty, sixty, a hundred, for one."
Gospel of Luke 8, 4-18
Lk 8, 4-18 : As a great crowd gathered, and people from every town came to Jesus, he said in a parable: "The sower went out to sow seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. Passers-by trampled it underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it all up. It also fell in the stones, grew and withered because it had no moisture. It also fell among the brambles, and the brambles, growing with it, suffocated it. Finally, some fell into good soil, and it grew and bore fruit a hundredfold." Saying this, he raised his voice: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He told them: "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but the others have only the parables. So, as it is written, 'They look, but do not see; they hear, but do not understand. This is what the parable means. The seed is the word of God. Then the devil comes and takes the Word from their hearts, to prevent them from believing and being saved. There are those who are in the stones: when they hear, they welcome the Word with joy; but they have no roots, they believe for a moment and, at the moment of trial, they give up. What has fallen into the brambles are the people who have heard, but are choked along the way by worries, wealth and the pleasures of life, and fail to mature. And what has fallen into good soil are the people who have heard the Word in a good and generous heart, who retain it and bear fruit by their perseverance.(...)
Be careful how you listen. For to him who has, it will be given; and to him who has not, even what he thinks he has will be taken away."
Gospel of Luke 10, 23-24
Lk 10, 23-24 : Then he turned to his disciples and said to them in particular: "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings have wished to see what you see, and have not seen it; to hear what you hear, and have not heard it."