Gospel (Mt 13,1-9) - That day Jesus left the house and sat by the sea. Such a crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. He spoke to them many things in parables. And he said, “Behold, the sower went out to sow. While he sowed, some fell along the road; the birds came and ate it. Another part fell on the stony ground, where there was not much soil; it sprouted immediately, because the soil was not deep, but when the sun rose, it was burned and, having no roots, withered. Another part fell on the brambles, and the brambles grew and suffocated it. Another part fell on good soil and bore fruit: one hundred, sixty, thirty for one. Whoever has ears, listen."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The Gospel presents us with Jesus along the Sea of Galilee, forced to get on a boat due to the large crowd that had gathered around him. He tells an important parable. And, a rare case in the Gospels, he explains it himself. The underlying meaning of the parable is clear: we must live by listening to the Gospel and not by our own presumption. The sower goes out to sow and throws the seed with large armfuls. He doesn't seem to care about choosing the soil, as many seeds are lost. Only those that fall on good earth bear fruit. Jesus, even if he doesn't say it, compares himself to the sower. The generosity in spreading the seed is his, typically his, certainly not ours. That sower is not a measured calculator; and, what's more, he seems to place trust even in those lands that are more a road or a pile of stones than plowed and available land. No portion is discarded. The terrain is the world, even that part of the world that is each of us. It is not difficult to recognize in the diversity of the terrain the complexity of the world's situations and those of each of us. Jesus does not want to divide men and women into two categories, those who represent the good soil and the others the bad. Each of us summarizes all the diversity of terrain reported by the Gospel. Maybe one day it is more rocky and another less; other times he welcomes the Gospel but then lets himself be surprised by temptation; and in another moment he listens and bears fruit. One thing is certain for everyone: the sower needs to enter the soil, turn over the clods, remove the stones, uproot the bitter herbs and sow the seed abundantly. The soil, whether it is rocky or good, almost does not matter, must welcome the seed, that is, the Word of God. It is always a gift.