Commemoration of the Miracle Performed at Colossus in Chone by the Archangel Michael; Holy Martyr Eudoxius and His Companions (284- 305); Our Venerable Father Archipus
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2 Corinthians 11:5-21; Mark 4:1-9
John Chrysostom remarks in this parable that God, like the sower gives his gifts in discriminate everyone: “Making no distinction between rich and poor, wise and foolish, lazy or diligent, brave or cowardly. He addresses everyone.” The troubling thing is, this seems wasteful. A good farmer should know what good ground is. Likewise, certainly, God in his divine foreknowledge would know who is going to listen or not. But the difference between us in the soil is clear. We can change the attitude of our hearts to become good soil for the word to plant more firmly in our hearts. We can remove the rocky parts of insensitivity to become more sensitive to God. We can remove the thorns and thistles of sin to become a freer place for the love of God to grow within us. The question this parable puts to us is not what kind of ground we are, but what kind of ground we need to become.
At Compline, we sometimes commemorate the martyrs with the following troparion: “To you, Gardener of all creation, the church offers its martyrs as the first fruits of nature.” The end goal of the sowing is to return these first fruits to God. The only way to become so is through sacrifice. A daily martyrdom. A daily handing over of our will to God. We do not have an absentee landowner who sows his seed and leaves. Rather, we have one who wants to be the gardener of all creation and help us transform our rocky ground into the good soil to bring about these first fruits of nature. Our destiny, not our vain imaginings, lie in our troparia. Let us strive to incarnate them in our daily lives.