The privilege of discipleship

Are we true and faithful disciples of Christ? How strong and active is our faith in him? Jesus himself describes to us the authentic meaning of Christian discipleship in today’s gospel parable (Mt. 13:1-23). It is an eye-opener that leads us to open our hearts to love and serve him, as he loves and serves us. What then are the four kinds of human seeds that Jesus describes? May I invite each one of our readers to prayerfully reflect under which category you belong to.

First: “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart” (Mt. 13:19). A typical example of this is this man who even attends Holy Mass with his wife and children every Sunday, but barely listens to the Scripture readings and homily, and this happens from Sunday to Sunday. Then a time came when he was introduced to a woman who eventually got attracted to him, and they ended up having an extra-marital affair. This went on for several years without his wife knowing about it, until she finally discovered the marital infidelity of her husband. It ended up with the wife’s decision to separate from her husband.

Second: “The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away” (vv. 20-21). There was this young man in his late teens who was invited to attend a Life in the Spirit Seminar (LSS). He experienced a spiritual conversion, and started to serve at Mass and other activities in their parish. His male friends started to tease him and branded him as a “bakla.” After a while, he could not stand it anymore. He resigned from his parish activities, and after sometime, even stopped attending Sunday Mass.

Third: “The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit” (v.22). Here was a businessman who was educated in a well-known Catholic school from elementary, high school, all the way through college. In his private business, he went through a lot of competition. But he was determined to succeed and really earn a lot from his business. He started by not paying his taxes and doing a few other ways of cheating. Moreover, his employees were terribly underpaid. After some years, he ended up as a rich man, but his Catholic life and values collapsed into nothingness. A discipleship that moved from Christ to Satan.

Fourth: “But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold” (v. 23). That businessman mentioned above had a classmate in college who also went into a private business after graduation. But his character and personality make-up were very different from that of his classmate. First of all, his psycho-spiritual conversion to Christian discipleship was deep and strong. What he learned in his theology courses and spiritual retreats became a central part of his inner self. He developed a prayerlife that was authentic. In other words, he was no less than a contemplative in action. His moral integrity in running his business was amazing. No forms of cheating at all. He was the inspiration of his employees, whom he paid with salaries way beyond the Minimum Wage Law.

Moreover, he and his wife were an active couple in their parish, especially in programs for the poor. As a couple, they started a scholarship program that really helped a good number of poor children. However, after several years, his business started to suffer serious problems. It even reached a point when he felt it was about to collapse. He was tempted to just close it down completely, and depend instead on his savings, some stocks that he had invested in another corporation, and a piece of property that was being rented. From all this, he and his family could make both ends meet and live a radically simple lifestyle. But he felt so much concern and compassion for his 30 employees who would end up jobless at this time in our country when the numbers of jobless Filipinos are so many. What would happen to his employees and their families?!

He and his wife, with the help of a business consultant, worked so hard and did all they could to save their business. They surrendered themselves to the Lord and prayed incessantly, not only for themselves, but for their employees and their families.

Bit by bit, believe it or not, things began to improve and in due time, after many months, the business was brought back to normalcy. Today, our couple, still working hard and as prayerful and morally honest as before, continue to give their human best and trust in the Lord as their constant companion.

You and I, each one of us, is likewise called by the ever-loving God to be his ever-loving disciple. Love is effortful. Love hurts. But it is the only life worth living for and dying for. Amen.