In contemplating the Parable of the Sower, one could liken the various soils to the phases of human life, from childhood to the mature years, much in the following manner:

The hard soil:  A time in which there is not a depth of understanding . . . CHILDHOOD.

The shallow soil:  A period of time during which truth and substance can be snatched away or replaced by the superficial . . . THE TEEN YEARS.

The “tangled-up” soil:  That time of life in which truth gets lost in clutter, activity and the pursuit of what may not be worthwhile . . .  ADULTHOOD.

The good soil:  The time of life when God slows a person down to assess life from His point of view . . . MATURITY (the Golden Years).

The first three could, unfortunately, last a lifetime; however, the last phase, the best phase, could begin early if one cooperates with God’s Grace.  To seek a maturity of soul in one’s youth is ideal.  Just be careful not become as the popular singer Rosemary Clooney describes in one of her songs “old at twenty-three.”

When we read the Word of God in Holy Scripture, we should always ask ourselves:

1. What does this passage mean?

2. How does this passage relate to Christ?

3. How does this passage apply to me?

In asking ourselves this last question, we should try to follow a process of thinking that includes:

1. Knowledge:  Gathering information from what we read or hear.

2. Understanding:  Understanding the information or principles in what we read or hear.

3. Application:  Internalizing that information or those principles . . . simply put, making them personal.

Then, we can advance to:

4. Analysis:  Pulling the information apart to investigate it, look at it, study it and contemplate it.

5. Synthesis:  Putting the information or principles back together and incorporating them with what we already know and understand . . . internalizing them so that we can move to the last phase in the process.

6. Evaluation:  Making intellectual and moral decisions based upon our understanding of the newly acquired facts, principles or truths.

No study of the Holy  Scriptures is complete until we’ve reached the phase of evaluation in which we’ve gathered, meditated upon and internalized Truth and allow it to impact how we think, behave and react.

It is in that last phase of human maturation that we can truly reflect on all that we’ve learned and observed in our lives and see how God has planted truth in our hearts and has nurtured that Truth through the Grace of the Sacraments to grow our souls to maturity . . . to transform them and prepare them to bear eternal fruit.