One of the seeds fell by the wayside, another on a stone, a third on a thorn, and a fourth on ploughed land...

What does this parable mean? It explains and reveals to us a mystery – the one that each of us has pondered more than once: why some people believe in God, while others are indifferent to everything holy; why some people gladly accept the word of the Gospel, while for others it remains a foreign and forever closed book; why the light of faith emanates from some people, while the hearts of others are like a tombstone. This parable reveals to us that the seed – the word of God – is perceived differently by each human heart. The heart is the center of every person's life: the heart sums up everything that a person does, what he thinks, what he strives for, what he desires. We have two memories: the memory of the mind and the memory of the heart. In the memory of the mind, the past is quickly erased, but in the memory of the heart it remains forever. And you know, brothers and sisters, there is an amazing interconnection here: how we live, what our life is, and so is our heart. But as the heart is, so is life...

The famous archpastor, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, wrote about himself that he grew up in a non-religious family and that he was never interested in religious issues, he perceived Christianity as unnecessary polemics and unnecessary disputes. But then one day the Gospel fell into his hands. "I read it several times," he writes, "I realized that until then I had lived a false life, that only now I was born into the world," he realized that this was what his soul had been looking for for so many years.

Here is another example: during the siege of Jerusalem, during the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Jeremiah sent him a charter in which were written the terrible prophecies given to him by God – the prophecy of the fall of Jerusalem and the prophecy that resistance to the enemies would be fruitless, and that if the king wanted to save the country, he must submit to Babylon as the embodiment of God's wrath against the Jews for their apostasy from their Lord (Jeremiah 32:32). 1–5). Zedekiah listened attentively to the terrible prediction of his fate. The charter sent by Jeremiah was a scroll, that is, a twisted ribbon of parchment. The king cut off the part he had read and threw it into the fire of the brazier that stood before him, so he listened to the reading of the entire prophecy, and his face did not even tremble. All these words did not touch his heart, and the whole scroll was burned, and the king ordered the prophet to be thrown into prison.

Another example: Christian missionaries told an Indian chief about Christ the Savior, about the Kingdom of Heaven and about hell, and read the Gospel to him. The chief listened to them and asked: "If I do everything written in this book, then where will I go?" He asked again: "And where are my ancestors?" – "They were strangers to Christ, and therefore their souls are in hell." To this the chief said: "My ancestors were famous and rich people, they enjoyed all the pleasures in this world, and you are unfortunate wanderers who have nothing. Of course, I want to be better in hell, together with my ancestors-kings, than with you, beggars, in the Kingdom of Heaven." And throwing the Gospel to the ground, he began to trample it under his feet.

The Lord says that one seed fell by the wayside: caravans go along the road, horsemen pass by, travelers hurry, shepherds drive their flocks of sheep, the ground here becomes hard as stone. What does this mean? It means spiritual pride, which makes a person's heart hard and dead to everything above. The Lord says: "The birds of the air have eaten the grain." By the birds of heaven the interpreters of the Gospel mean demons: they circle above us and try to snatch from our hearts the memory of God and the word of the Holy Gospel.

Brothers and sisters! How many times have we visited the church of God, attended the Liturgy, but many of us have not even learned the nine Beatitudes, which are sung before the Little Entrance. Demons immediately steal sacred words from the soul and heart. He who is intoxicated with spiritual pride, hearing the word of God, as if he did not hear it, as if he were sleeping: whatever you say in the ear of a sleeper, when he wakes up, he will not remember a word.

Another seed fell on the stony ground, the sun warmed it, and the seed soon sprouted, but since there was no earth here to take deep roots, the sprout soon withered. Here the Lord speaks of sensual, dreamy people who enthusiastically accept the Gospel: sometimes they even cry when reading this Holy Book, but these people are weak-willed, admiring the Holy Scriptures, they do not even think of fulfilling it in their lives. When trials and temptations come, they easily abandon the word of God, which used to touch their hearts so much. A stone lightly covered with earth refers to those people for whom the fulfillment of the commandments of the Holy Scriptures seems to be an unbearable labor, and in trials or persecutions they abandon their faith as a heavy burden.

The other seed fell into the thorns. Thorns are our passions, a person's attachment to earthly things. The life of such a person is all in vanity, he is like an ant that runs around an anthill. In the noise of worldly cares, he does not hear the voice of the Spirit, sensual passions stifle faith in his heart. Such people may also consider themselves Christians, but faith is somewhere in the "corner" of their consciousness – so sometimes we put some unnecessary thing in the corner of the room: it is a pity for us to throw it away completely, and at the same time we cannot find a use for it. And so, brothers and sisters, these people often "wake up" at the edge of the grave and only then realize how empty and aimless their life was. For many, the grave becomes a trap – a trap in which a person suddenly finds himself, like some hunted animal in a pit covered with branches from above. Death comes to them unexpectedly, when they think least of all about it.

But behold, another seed fell into good land. The Lord said to Adam: "Preserve and nurture the Garden of Eden" (Gen. 2:15). The Holy Fathers say that the garden is our heart. The main thing in the life of a Christian is to preserve the purity of his heart. The heart is the source of life. Thus, here in the parable it is said about those who have kept the word of God in a good, kind heart. And what is a "kind heart"? It is the ability to have compassion for another, to rejoice in his joy and to grieve with his sorrow. A sinner loves himself to the point of forgetting God and his neighbor. But the righteous forget himself for the sake of love for God and for people. Therefore, Christian love is always sacrificial.

Brothers and sisters! The parable that you have heard today speaks of the great significance of the Holy Gospel for us. The sower is the Lord Himself, but the Holy Church continues to preach the word of God, so the sowing of seeds continues. The Holy Fathers command us to read the Gospel daily. Before reading, one must pray in order to understand the Holy Scriptures correctly, in order to remember them; usually they read a prayer to the Heavenly King..., because only by the action of grace is the word of God revealed to the heart. Then one should not immediately begin to read, but wait until one's thoughts have subsided, one must tear one's mind and heart away from all worldly, vain, and temporary things. The Holy Fathers teach that if a person can, he should read the Gospel while standing, and the Psalter and the Epistle can be read while sitting. Then, you need to read the Scriptures slowly, preferably aloud. In ancient times, the Holy Scriptures were read aloud, quietly and unhurriedly. It is good if a Christian memorizes this or that verse from the Holy Gospel. Some learn the entire Gospel in this way – gradually, beginning with the first chapter, and some learn the Savior's discourses and His commandments at the beginning. After reading the Gospel, you need to read the prayer It is truly meet, and then not immediately begin to do the things of life, but first think about how to fulfill what you have read in life: you need to perceive the Gospel as if Christ Himself spoke to us, as if all the words that we have read are directed, addressed to us personally. We must think about how to fulfill everything we read during the day. St. Theophan the Recluse writes that it is better to read the Gospel in the morning, the Lives of the Saints in the afternoon, and the works of the Fathers in the evening, before going to bed. But the Holy Scriptures can be read at any time. The famous theologian Vladimir Lossky did not part with the Bible at all: he read it every free minute, even when he was standing at a bus stop and waiting for a bus – and then he took out a small book that he carried with him and, standing in a crowd of people, read it, not paying attention to what was happening around him.

Brothers and sisters! The Lord says that only a pure, gracious heart is receptive to the word of God. But remember: the very word of God protects our hearts from malice and impurity.

Amen.