Parable of the Seed Planted in the Ground
This parable is reported only by Mark 4:26-29. It is one of the many parables of Jesus using the image of the seed. In this one, the seed grows without the intervention of man: nature takes care of everything. The sower sows only with faith and reaps with joy. The canon Osty, in his footnote, exclaims:
"Beautiful parable, which can serve as Consolation to all those who believe they preach in the desert."[1]This is indeed the meaning that this parable takes in the writings of Maria Valtorta.
In Maria Valtorta
It is reported in GRM 184.4, in the same episode as the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
The context
Jesus is in Magdala, at the very beginning of the second year of his public life. He was silenced under the effect of an inner motion at the great Scandal of Peter who knows the licentious reputation of this resort on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Suddenly, a weeping Woman calls for help, her son has just been mortally wounded in a brawl among lovers of the notorious Mary of Magdala.[2] The dying man is a head of Family driven mad by lust. He is dragged out of the crime villa and Jesus heals him for the sake of the children and the grieving wife. Mary Magdalene followed the procession. Jesus passes before her without a word"He then goes out passing in front of the Magdalene who followed the procession as far as the entrance of the house where she remained leaning against a tree. Jesus slackens His pace as if He were waiting for His disciples, but I think He does so to give Mary a chance of making a gesture. But she does not.Everyone comments on the drama and its cause, the healing and Jesus’ attitude. They find it too lenient and devoid of the reproaches they expected to hear. They whisper behind his back.The disciples reach Jesus and Peter cannot help muttering between his teeth an epithet appropriate to Mary, who, wishing to strike an attitude, bursts into a laugh of a weak triumph. But Jesus heard Peter’s word and addresses him severely: «Peter. I do not insult. Do not insult. Pray for sinners. Nothing else.»
Mary stops her trilling laughter, lowers her head and runs away, like a gazelle, towards her house."[3]
The parable
Jesus then addresses those who are discussing and clarifies his attitude:"You doubt Mary’s conversion to Good. There is no sign in her in that direction. Brazen and impudent, conscious of her rank and power, she dared to defy the people and come to the very threshold of the house where they are weeping because of her. She laughed at Peter’s reproach. She replied to My inviting look by striking a proud attitude. Perhaps some of you, either for Lazarus’ sake or for mine, would have liked Me to speak to her directly, at some length, subduing her with My power, showing My strength as Messiah and Saviour. No. All that is not needed. I already said so many months ago with regards to another sinner.[4] Souls must react by themselves. I pass and sow the seed. The seed works in secret. A soul is to be respected in this work. If the first seed does not take root, another must be sown, and a third one… and one must give up only when there is definite proof that it is useless to sow. And one prays. Prayer is like dew on the clods of earth: it keeps them soft and nourishes them, so that the seed can sprout."[5]Jesus centers his teaching on the long work of the Soul itself and on the role of prayer accompanying the action of God. For “The Kingdom of God is created in men’s hearts by the Divine Sower. He comes to his field - man belongs to God, because every man is initially His - and sows His seed.”[6] Then follows the parallel between the slow maturation of the plant and that of the Soul.
“My word does the same work in hearts. I am referring to the hearts which receive the seed. But it is a slow process. One must not spoil everything by being hasty. How troublesome it is for the little seed to split and take root! Such work is painful also for a hard wild heart. It must open itself, allow people to search it, accept new things and nourish them laboriously, appear different being covered with humble useful things, instead of the fascinating, pompous, useless, exuberant flourishing that covered it previously. It must be satisfied with working humbly for the benefit of the divine Thought, without drawing other people’s admiring attention. It must exert all its talent to grow and burst into ear. It must burn with love to become corn. And after overcoming all fears of human opinion, which are so grievous, after toiling, suffering and becoming attached to its new dress, it must be deprived of it by a cruel cut. [...] The life of a sinner who becomes a saint is the longest, most heroic and glorious fight. I tell you.”[6]As a Confirmation of the power of love in Hearts, Jesus questions Matthew:
“Did I behave differently with you, Matthew?»«No, my Lord, You did not.»
«And tell Me the truth: what convinced you more, My patience or the bitter reproaches of the Pharisees?»
«Your patience, so much so that I am here. The Pharisees, by despising and anathematizing me, made me scornful, and out of contempt I did more harm than I had done so far. That is what happens. Sinners become more obstinate when they realise that they are treated as sinners. But when we are caressed instead of being insulted, we are dumbfounded and we weep… and when one weeps, the whole framework of sin collapses… One is left naked before Goodness and one implores it wholeheartedly to be reclothed by It.”[7]