Hebrews 10:11-18 / Mark 4:1-10
In school, we learn about ideas and theories and formulas and principles.
With all the knowledge in our heads, we will to go out into the world to see how these ideas and theories and principles work in the practicality and in the reality of life.
To remain in the classroom and not moving out would only give us a very narrow and myopic perspective.
Jesus began His ministry by teaching in the synagogues. But in today's gospel we heard that He began teaching by the lakeside.
And He used simple stories of everyday life to teach the people about eternal life, and also to help them understand the kingdom of God in the reality of their lives.
Hence the parable of the sower is about the hearts of the people as well as about our own hearts and how we are responding to God's Word.
Yet it is also a parable about God's heart for His people. The parable begins with "a sower going out to sow".
God goes out to His people to where they are and in their everyday lives and it is there He sows His word.
The 1st reading says that when those days arrive, God will make a new covenant with them, and He will put His laws into their hearts and write them on their minds.
In Jesus, God has come down from heaven to be with us so that we are able to understand His love. And may our hearts be sown with the seeds of God's love and bear a harvest of love too.