Perhaps the recent primary circus may well be a sign to politicians and pundits alike. The "political surge" that has come alive on the pathways of our daily spiritual journeys seems to put before us the word "change." The increased interest among young adults and the experience of long lines at the voting booths are perceived as signs -- signs that the American people are seeking "change." Beneath all the verbiage from the stumps and the growing interest lies a cry for a "CHANGE IN SPIRIT." There is a call for a new heart in the land of freedom.
In the SCRIPTURE from today's liturgy Evangelist Mark describes the fate of the Word of God, the seed that falls on different kinds of soil beneath our feet on our own journeys. In a way the four experiential soils of someone hearing the Word of God and how that someone accepts and lives out God's message may well be a description of a person's spiritual, life-long journey. Most likely the path many "have trod, have trod," to quote Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, has been a journey where the soil has changed from time to time.
At one time the journey may be happening over soil that has become trampled by active running around, pounding down the soil, making it hard for any seed to take root. It might be soil with many rocks and not enough soil to provide the seed a place to put down roots. Perhaps it is a pathway that is covered over with thorns that would take the life out of a seed when it was trying to grow. But, hopefully, we find that most of our journey is over good soil, soil enriched by a heart open to the Word of God.
There is a call rising in the hearts of many. It is a call for a new spirit not just in the political sphere but in the lives of many good people. 
Yesterday I broke bread again with one of those unique individuals who has touched my life over the last five years. A retired Presbyterian minister of God's Word, a sower of God's Word, who in his early eighties. Reverend Jack McClendon is no ordinary man, no ordinary retired preacher of the Word.
Yesterday I broke bread again with one of those unique individuals who has touched my life over the last five years. A retired Presbyterian minister of God's Word, a sower of God's Word, who in his early eighties. Reverend Jack McClendon is no ordinary man, no ordinary retired preacher of the Word.
When we are together he always shares some time and reflection with me about his latest spiritual readings, what God's Word is doing in my heart, where God is leading me on my personal journey in priesthood and on many occasions questions about how to learn more ways to learn how to use the computer so he can read more about God and what is happening in his church and my church.
My true friend, Jack, reminds me so much of Jesus' parable in Mark and its true meaning: always being ready of heart to see the change in spirit that springs up from the fresh, fertile soil that comes from being open and true to God's Word. He is truly an example to me and his other friends of Psalm 89:29-30 of today's responsorial psalm. There we find again God's promise to those who keep a heart open to change, open to God's Word on each part of life's journey: "Forever I will maintain my love for him, my covenant with him stands firm."
My hope is that there are priests, ministers, rabbis or imams in your life that help you by their example of openness to the Word of God; individuals who themselves struggle not to wear down the pathway to God, who till the soil of their hearts in prayer and spiritual reading and reflection to know the Word of God that the Holy Spirit is sowing in their hearts. If you have friends or acquaintances like that, the soil in your heart will never become "trod," never become rocky, never become thorny. But if it does, there is the same assurance that Yahweh gave to David: I will always be with you!
