Listen, a sower went out to sow…The parable of the sower, found in all the three synoptic Gospels, is one of the two parables of which Jesus gives an explanation (the other being the parable of the weeds in the field [cf. Matthew 13:24-30]). The inclusion of the explanation serves to make the parable appear not to need any serious reflection on the part of the hearer. And I would not be far from the truth to assume that most of us approach the parable of the sower with such an attitude: ‘Why bother to look for another meaning/explanation yet Jesus has already provided its meaning?’ However, such an approach makes the parable to lose its sting. For when we take Jesus’ explanation of the parable at face value, all we end up doing, unfortunately, is to categorize people as bad, good, rocky, and thorny recipients of God's word. Such an interpretation of the parable would fall short of yielding the desired effect. Jesus preferred to employ the use of parables when teaching because of their (parables) efficacy in engaging the hearer. The parables were supposed to invite the hearer into the story itself with the expectation that at some point the hearer finds him/herself being part of the story. The parable of the sower, despite Jesus providing an explanation, must still be understood and interpreted in a manner than draws us into the story. To achieve this, we have to begin approaching the parable from a non-judgmental, non-discriminatory point of view. In other words, we have to understand the parable as a description of who we are as recipients of the word of God. Rather than assigning the different types of soils to different people based on our (subjective) perception of them, we have to see in ourselves the different types of soil. Each of us in his or her lifetime will shift from one type of soil to the other. Each recipient of the word of God will always have the potential of nurturing the seed to full fruition (rich soil). However, it is the kind of nurturing and care given to the Word planted inside us that end up determining the type of soil we are at any particular time in our lifetime. Once the word of God has been received (joyfully) by us, we have the responsibility of ensuring that the planted seed is taken care of and not overrun by weeds, choked by thorns, or to let the seed die for lack of water and other necessary nutrients (barren/rocky soil). Jesus uses the parables to reveal to us the mysteries of the kingdom he came to inaugurate (mystery here understood not as something that cannot be comprehended but rather as something hidden [most of the time in plain sight]). In the parable of the sower, Jesus not only reveals that the kingdom is already in our midst, but that it is also present in seed form. As something present in seed form, the kingdom remains inert and dormant until it is ‘earthed.’ The earthing takes place the moment we encounter the Word of God. When the Word of God hits our ears, we are made to spring to action, for as the Lord says through Isaiah the prophet, the Word of the Lord never returns to the Lord without attaining its goal (cf. First Reading). It is how we receive the Word of God that determines the place we occupy in the kingdom.