In the last half of Mk 4:1-20, Jesus makes it clear that four kinds of people hear His invitation into The Kingdom of God. Which of the four kinds of people are we? Which type of the four do we want to be?
The large crowd He addressed from a boat did not understand all that He said. Afterwards, the Apostles, wanted to be sure they understood the full meaning of the parable. Catholic Fundamentalism suggests that He was describing four kinds of human personalities. He explains to The Apostles:
Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? (About the first, and possibly the most common type of person, He explains:) The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. (When these people hear The Word, the invitation into The Kingdom of God, they respond favorably but are easily distracted by the demons they can’t stop from keeping them distracted from His love and truth.)
The second kind of personality are those whom He describes as “rocky ground”. They go from group to group, seeking a place “where they feel at home”. “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no roots; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” We see many go down from, for instance, The Church Jesus Founded to one of less rigidity and, often, falling farther to others with even less consistency. Soon, they end up with their arms in the air, swaying back and forth, responding with ever louder “Amens!” in a faith reduced to the shallowness of saying nothing more profound than “I believe in Jesus and The Bible!” while ignoring anything therein that they find inconvenient.
He describes the third kind of person as “those among thorns”. The hard, sharp thorns among which they live trap them among created entities. They are caught among brambles from which they cannot escape without tearing their clothes. They are kept from The Word that invites them to escape the binding thorns and move into The Kingdom of God. “Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit.”
The fourth sort of person is best understand by comparing them to obedient Catholics. They hear The Word, they accept its Invitation into The Kingdom, and they follow the rules. They go to Church where Jesus commanded: “Thou art Peter and on this rock I build My Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” They are Catholic because there is no other place that allows them to obey “If you do not eat My Body and drink My Blood you do not have life in you.” They know that if they obey such commands of His, that He will say “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” He does not say that to those who disobey. But, to the obedient, He says “If you obey My commands, you are My friends.” And, what happens to the fourth sort of person, to the obedient Catholics?
“But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
