 Guess what? They keep the clock running during the homily. Is that fair? I don't think so. Earlier this morning, Dr. Hahn mentioned that I'm the Bishop of the Wonderful Diocese of Harrisburg in Pennsylvania, only for about a year and a half. For 11 years before that, I was the Bishop of the Wonderful Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky. Other people from Kentucky here are very good, wonderful. Well, in the Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, there is a place called Dogpatch. And I think there's two or three people here old enough to remember that imaginary town created by Al Cap in that fantastically successful comic strip Little Abner. Well, my favorite character from Dogpatch was Little Abner's mother. He's six foot something, she's four foot something. Mami Yokum. And to those of you who know the comic strip Little Abner, know that there was a phrase that Mami Yokum would repeat often whenever anyone disagreed with her or wanted to take issue with something she was about to do or something she had said, Mami would simply say, I has spoken. I has spoken, and that was the end of the argument. Mami possessed a drive and an energy that others respected and quickly obeyed. What she says goes because her word was powerful in Dogpatch. Well, I reflected and prayed and thought about these Scripture readings in today's liturgy, the word, and I think the Lord might borrow that phrase from Mami. The Lord can say, I has spoken. I have spoken the divine word and the Responsorial Psalm reminded us of the word. The Old Testament reading from the book of Exodus narrates the giving of the decalogue, the ten words, which form the basis for Israel's response to the God of the covenant. This is the third day in a row that the lectionary takes us to Matthew chapter 13, our Lord's parabolic discourse, and the third day in a row that we reflect on the parable of the sower, the first parable that Jesus tells in Matthew's Gospel. St. Matthew presents the parable in three segments, and that's why the lectionary breaks it up for three days. There's the parable proper, describing the sower, broadcasting the seed in every direction on the four types of soil. Then there's the middle section that contains a discussion with Jesus and his disciples about why he spoke and taught in parables. And finally there's today's passage in which Jesus explains the parable. Matthew presents our Lord as a true teacher of mystery, a mysticogue. The Lord sows the seed of his word in telling the parable, and then he enlightens our understanding about its importance. Notice how our Lord began this explanation. He says to his disciples and to us, hear the parable of the sower. Kind of strange, don't you think? He's already told the parable, and now he says, hear it. He wants the words of the parable and its truth to sink into their minds and hearts just as the sower's seeds were received by the good soil to produce great results. The simple direct command, hear, hear the parable, reminds me of the fundamental command of Israel's faith, the Shema, the Shema Israel of Deuteronomy 6.4. Here, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone. Therefore you shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, with your whole being, and with your whole strength. The Shema, part of Israel's daily prayer regimen, underscores Israel's unique relationship with God. In Matthew, written primarily for converts to Christ from Judaism, the simple word hear meant something. It widened the audience from the people of the First Covenant to whomever God now extends the graciousness that was formally directed to Israel alone. Some gospel commentators use the hear, O Israel, as the framework for understanding this parable. For them, the seed devoured by the birds represents those who do not love God with their whole heart. The rocky ground stands for those who do not love God with their whole being. The ground where the seed is choked by thorns are those who fail to love God with their whole strength. The elaborate setting of this parable in Matthew underscores its paramount importance. It is the first parable told, but the parable told Jesus explains why he uses parables and then interprets the meaning of the parable. I think that the reason for this highly structured treatment of the parable of the sower is because the parable touches on the truth of the very heart of our Christian experience. In this parable, Jesus is addressing the sacred mystery of his own incarnation. Historically, the word became flesh and entered humanity in order to bear fruit for the Father's kingdom. Spiritually, the parable expresses the incarnate word's desire to enter the good soil of our hearts and bear abundant fruit for the Father's kingdom. Saint John Paul reflected on this mystery in a Wednesday audience catechesis during the Jubilee year 2000. He stated this, quote, at the center of our faith is the incarnation in which the glory of the Trinity and the Trinity's love for us is revealed and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. Through these words, the Pope said, we can understand how the revelation of the Trinity's glory in the incarnation is not a flash of light dispelling the darkness for a moment, but a seed of divine life sown in the world and in human hearts forever. In the incarnation, we contemplate the Trinitarian love which is revealed in Jesus, a love that does not remain closed but shines forth in human flesh and in human history. It pervades man, giving him new birth as a son in the Son. In this light of the incarnation mystery, I see this parable at root as a Marian parable. Could our Lord have had in mind His own mother, Mary, ever virgin, when He spoke of that good soil which received the seed with humble openness and allowed the power of that incarnate word to come to fruition in and through her? I bet He did have Mary in mind. We should notice as well in the text of the parable the word sown is not the word about the kingdom, but as we heard the word of the kingdom. What is sown is not just information concerning the reign of God, but the kingdom itself in seed form. What is needed to be the good soil is a willing openness, an openness to receive this kingdom word, nurture it, and allow it to come to fruition in and through us by God s grace. Ultimately, my brothers and sisters, this parable is about a tremendous harvest. Even though three-quarters of the soil is unreceptive, the portion of land where the soil, where the seed takes root and grows does so with astounding results. We're told that in our Lord's day a good harvest for a Palestinian farmer might yield up to tenfold in a good year, a good season. A harvest that produces a hundred or sixty or thirty-fold even would be unimaginable. Hear the parable again. Hear the parable in a fresh way. Hear the good news that should overwhelm us in knowing the inconceivable abundance of God s graciousness toward us. The miraculous harvest that is described could only be the work of God. A work of God surpassing anything that is possible from our human efforts. The parable proclaims the good news. The good news of God s loving providence for us who hear and receive the word of God, the word who is God with all our hearts, with all our being, with all our strength.