If each of us were asked to choose a gospel parable that best describes the age in which we live, there would no doubt be as many answers among us as there are parables. In the wisdom of God, timeless truths are reflected in a diversity of parables, so that until the end of time every human person will be capable of finding “a pearl of great price” that opens his or her mind and heart to the unity and fullness of the Gospel.

As we enter the season of Lent 2006 and ponder the world in which we live, I think of the “Parable of the Sower” (Matt. 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8: 4-15). Jesus tells how a sower of seed went about his work. Many different outcomes awaited the seed that was sown. Some was eaten by birds. Some withered and died for lack of good soil. Some was choked to death by thorns. And some flourished and produced varying yields of grain.

Jesus explains that the “seed” is the Word of God. What was eaten by birds represents those who hear God’s Word but fail to understand, so that Satan comes and snatches the Word away from them. The seed that withers represents those who first accept God’s Word with joy, but as soon as temptation, tribulation and persecution come along they fall away. The seed choked by the thorns are those who bear no fruit because they are overcome by the cares of the world or a desire and delight in riches and the pleasures of life. A good harvest comes only from those who, hearing God’s Word, hold fast to it with an honest and good heart, and bring forth fruit with patience.

A harvest of holiness can always be found in this world, because Christ has won the victory and has endowed his Bride, the Church, with a sanctity that cannot fail. However, we also have to acknowledge that perhaps more than ever, our society, even our “household of faith,” is marked by a failure to understand, a falling away, and the allure of worldly things.

The result is a decline in devoted adherence to Catholic identity and obligations, and an abandonment of Gospel teaching and morality. In place of repentance and an “obedience of faith” to the Word of God and all its implications, an increasing number of people are misled into crafting a gospel of their own. While insisting they are Catholics, they feel that they can determine their religious beliefs and practice according to their own preferences and convenience. As someone has pointed out, the words of Scripture, “speak, Lord, your servant is listening,” has now become “listen, Lord, your servant is speaking.”

On the Day of Judgment, which is harvest time, every one of us will fall into one of the categories of the parable of the sower. We need to have a healthy, serious concern for our spiritual well-being and destiny — and not only our own, but our neighbor’s too. Anyone who reads the Gospel with attention will realize that Jesus preached a radical call to conversion, discipleship and self-denial, not some minimalist veneer of religion or morality. Jesus also constantly teaches that we are to use the passing things of this world — even its persecutions, temptations, tribulations — in order to reach the things that last forever.

Where do we begin? The answer is not complicated. Jesus says, “Where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Luke 12:34). So we can begin by asking where our heart is for Lent 2006.

On a Sunday morning, if I have a choice between obeying the divine commandment to worship on the Lord’s Day as he has established in the Sacrifice of the Mass, on the one hand, or going to a sports event or sleeping in, on the other, where is my treasure?

Jesus tells us, “be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48), and to the Apostles he says “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (John 20:23). If I know all too well the evil I have done and the good I have failed to do, yet never go to the Sacrament of Penance, what will my harvest be?

If I spend hours watching television, but can never find 15 minutes to say the Rosary or spend some time in Eucharistic Adoration, where is my heart?

If I acknowledge that I need to know more about my faith and to grow spiritually, but never make the effort to feed my soul by reading a solid spiritual book or by going on a retreat, what does that say?

If I give relatively little to the needs of the poor and of the Church out of my abundance, but not sacrificially even from my want, what does that reveal about my treasure and my heart?

Pope Benedict says that Lent is “a privileged time of interior pilgrimage towards Him who is the fount of mercy. It is a pilgrimage in which He Himself accompanies us through the desert of our poverty, sustaining us on our way towards the intense joy of Easter. Even in the ‘valley of darkness’…while the tempter prompts us to despair or to place a vain hope in the work of our own hands, God is there to guard us and sustain us.”

I ask you to join me in praying for a great spiritual reawakening throughout our diocese this Lent, that the good seed of God’s Word will not be snatched away, or withered or choked, but rather will produce a rich harvest of holiness and Christian life.