Have we fertilized our soil so that seeds can grow?

[DAILY GOSPEL INSIGHTS AND REFLECTION FOR MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATION 26: JANUARY 26, 2022]

Have we fertilized our soil so that seeds can grow?

Mark 4:1-20. The Parable of the Sower

Finally, a gospel featuring a parable! Two verses stood out to me the most:

Mark 4:12 (the response of Jesus to those questioning Him about the parables): …so that they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and forgiven.

Mark 4: 20: …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.

What I love about the parables is that they seem simple stories yet very profound. They are gifts that keep on giving. I have heard the parables since I was a child, yet every time I hear them, new meanings and insights keep on emerging.

It is as if we are the soil where the Sower plants seeds, and we are in a continuing journey of enriching ourselves, fertilizing ourselves, to make sure that we internalize moral and spiritual lessons.

The Mark 4:12 passage seems like Jesus critiquing those who only pay attention to the appearances, the apparent or surface-level meanings, of the parables He shares. It is an invitation — a challenge even — to pause, reflect, and savor the meanings and insights that arise from His stories.

The challenge with business and politics is that we seem to always prefer the low-hanging fruits, pleasing stakeholders and citizens with short-term spectacles (i.e., bullshit). But isn’t it our collective responsibility to fertilize our soil? Enriching and fertilizing soil seems an analogy for the struggles we have to go through for us to grow.

Maybe we have overemphasized pleasures and spectacles too much at the expense of growth pains towards authentic and integral development.