An old Jewish saying says that when it comes to students of a rabbi, they come in four flavors: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sieve. The sponge soaks up everything he hears, the good and the bad. The funnel takes it in one end and lets it out the other. My dad used to tell me that when it came to listening, it was I let things “in one ear and out the other.” That’s what a funnel does. A strainer allows the good stuff to fall through and hangs on to the things you don’t want. Then there is the sifter. A sifter gets the course grounds out, removes any bugs or twigs, and all that is left is the fine flour we want to eat.
That’s what Jesus is talking about today in the Gospel. This parable reminds us clearly and emphatically that there is a difference between hearing and listening. In all the examples we have this morning, everyone heard the word. They received the seed. Only one of them listened, changed. Only one of them grew. The ones who grew were the ones who not only heard and accepted the word but bore fruit. That’s key to understanding our faith.
Some would say that faith in Jesus is all about joy, all about good feelings. Jesus condemns that directly in this parable. “They hear the word, receive it at once with joy. But they have no roots; they last only for a time.” It’s also not just enough to have head knowledge. There are many atheists out there who know quite a bit about the Bible. Being a sponge is a good thing when it comes to passing a written test, right? There is no written exam at the end of our lives. Jesus will ask us what we did, who we fed, who did we give to drink. Where did you put your faith? Your talents?
We have to be like the sifter: taking the experiences that we have in our lives, the relationships, the workplaces, the music, the television shows-all of it! Then with the help of the Holy Spirit, sifting through it and rejecting anything that does not make us grow closer to Him. How do we do that? How can we take all that we have and do and begin to sift it?
We study our faith and publicly stand up for it, rejecting anything that goes against it. As the world continues to go further away from the teachings of Christ, we are the ones who need to be producing fruit. That means not just receiving the Sacraments but becoming a living Sacrament for the world. An easy way to do this is to go home, get out the Catechism; it’s online if you don’t have one. Find something you don’t know about or something you want to know more about. Then make that part of your life. Let the world see you genuinely believe what the Church teaches, all of it.
Picking and choosing is precisely the difference between being a sifter or a sieve. A listener instead of just a hearer. That’s the difference that makes us grow into the Kingdom of God instead of withering up and dying.
Wednesday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time: January 27th, 2021