“Casting and Collecting” by Beth DeCristofaro

“Casting and Collecting” by Beth DeCristofaro

Memorial of Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

Jesus said to the disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea, which collects fish of every kind. When it is full, they haul it ashore and sit down to put what is good into buckets. What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age. (Matthew 13:47-49)

Piety

How lovely your dwelling,

O LORD of hosts!

My soul yearns and pines

for the courts of the LORD.

My heart and flesh cry out

for the living God.

As the sparrow finds a home

and the swallow a nest to settle her young,

My home is by your altars,

LORD of hosts, my king and my God!

Blessed are those who dwell in your house!

They never cease to praise you.

Blessed the man who finds refuge in you,

in their hearts are pilgrim roads.

 (Psalm 84:2-6)

Study

My grandfather taught my siblings and me how to fish off a small dock along the Aquia Creek.  Although always impatient, I did love watching the water’s movement and the ducking of the bobber as perch and bluegills grabbed for the bait.  But then there were times a slimy, wriggling eel was reeled in and my grandfather was intolerant of my screaming and dancing out of its way.

However those creatures, and the messy preparation of the catch – for a skillet I always refused to taste – were part of the endeavor.  And so it is for the Kingdom of Heaven, says Jesus.  And so it is for us, his brothers and sisters, as we participate in the building of his kingdom.  We members of his body, of his church, are asked to spread the nets, reel in the catch and nurture everybody.  It is at the end of the age when the sorting is done by the judge we serve and whose love we share.  At times I might still feel like screaming or dancing away when someone with whom I disagree or on whom I blame imagined wrongs.  But we are called to cast nets wide not shut them, allowing God to throw away or retain at the end of the age.

Saint Alphonsus Liguori, renounced his noble birth, instead casting his nets wide for homeless, abandoned, struggling and questioning youth.  He was known for his charity and his pastoral approach to moral theology which “was noted for its balance, avoiding both laxism and excessive rigor”[i]. He founded an order that “fought Jansenism, a very negative form of spirituality which created an exaggerated sense of sin, which deterred people from receiving the Eucharist.”  By founding chapels where they lived and worked, he cast wide nets to bring common people, outsiders, the insignificant into closer communion with Jesus.  

Action

In what way might Jesus help me further open the net I cast as I live in praise of him, finding my home in him?

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[i] https://livingspace.sacredspace.ie/f0801s/

Illustration: https://news.fnal.gov/2011/09/casting-a-wide-net/

“The Joy of Discovery” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“The Joy of Discovery” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Memorial of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest

As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the LORD. When Aaron, then, and the other children of Israel saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. (Exodus 34:29-30)

Jesus said to his disciples: "The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it." (Matthew 13:44-46)

Piety

Lord, may you and your Kingdom be the treasure I desire.

Study

Saint Ignatius of Loyola's Vision of Christ and God the Father at La Storta, Domenichino, c. 1622, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

We have three storylines today: Moses’ face-to-face meeting with God on Mount Sinai, the parables about the Kingdom of heaven, and our remembrance of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The details of each one are specific to that particular story, but the overall storyline is the same. When we truly encounter God, we are changed forever! We are filled with joy!

In today’s first reading, Moses goes up the mountain carrying the two stone tablets, otherwise looking like he always did. Reaching the top and being there at the moment God passes by, causes Moses to kneel and bow to the ground. He comes down from that close encounter with God a man very changed in appearance. His face has become so radiant, the people of Israel are afraid to get too close. They avert their eyes. I don’t know anything other than overwhelming awe mixed with great joy that could so cause a person’s face to radiate light like that. Encountering God truly can change a person.

In today’s Gospel reading, we have two very short parables about how a person changes when he or she discovers the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says it’s like finding something of such worth that we will run out, sell everything we have and spend every last penny to buy it. I honestly can’t say I know too many people that on fire for the Kingdom of Heaven. There are plenty of people around us who would give their last penny and then someone else’s as well to purchase drugs, but the Kingdom of Heaven? I wish more people were that attracted to everything of God. Those people who are will quickly tell you it’s worth every cent and every minute of their time!

Today we also celebrate the feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Born in 1491, he was the youngest member of a large, noble family in the Basque country of Spain. As a boy, he was sent to be a page in the household of the treasurer of Castile. As he grew older, Ignatius became enamored of the military life as well as catching the eyes of all the pretty, young women. Seriously wounded in battle against the French in 1521, he had to be carried back to his family home from Pamplona, where he spent a long convalescence. Ignatius was very vain as a young man and underwent surgery more than once on his leg to achieve the best-looking result. He got bored after a while and asked for a novel to pass the time. What he was given instead were two books, one on the life of the saints and one on the life of Christ. He didn’t know it, but he was about to encounter God! He spent his time alternately daydreaming about the day he could get back to his life impressing the ladies and imagining himself, on the other hand, doing great things for Christ. Gradually, he came to realize that either set of daydreams passed the hours pleasantly, but that the only good feelings that stuck with him were those associated with what he could accomplish for the Lord. He made up his mind that once he was recovered, he would renounce his former ways, and spend the rest of his life working for the Lord. So, here is our third example of the joy that can be ours from encountering the Lord. Today St. Ignatius of Loyola is best known for his Spiritual Exercises.

Action

Spend some time today reflecting with Jesus on when you first met him and how that has influenced your life. Has that relationship taken you down any paths you otherwise might not have followed? Has it brought joy to your life?

“Come Along in Our Company” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

JillWellington, Pixabay

“Come Along in Our Company” by Melanie Rigney (@melanierigney)

Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Then (Moses) said, "If I find favor with you, O LORD, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own." (Exodus 34:9)

The Lord is kind and merciful. (Psalm 103:8a)

“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear." (Matthew 13:41-43)

Piety

Lord, take the stiffness out of my neck, that I might bow down and praise you.

Study

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be getting together with a number of people I don’t see often enough. In some cases, it’s been years. They’re the types of friendships that have stood the test of time, that even if we don’t talk or message often, we’ll pick up just where we left off.

I’m thinking particularly of my friend Julie, an ordained Baptist minister. We won’t have to plan it; we’ll just know to meet shortly before sunrise at Green Lake, Wisconsin’s deepest inland lake. There won’t be a lot of words, just comfortable silence. And when the sun breaks above the horizon line, we’ll sing “Morning Has Broken,” then join some other friends at breakfast. Oh, we’ll offer grace, but our sunrise practice is our invitation to the Lord to come along in our company for the day.

The first sunrise I saw with Julie at Green Lake was 2002, I believe. I couldn’t have been much further from having a relationship with God. But I was an early riser, and when I left my room to watch the sun come up, there Julie was. She was there every sunrise that week, and so was I. And so was God, waiting for the invitation to enter my soul. It was at Green Lake that my ears began to hear.

Action

Sing “Morning Has Broken” today—and mean it.

Do You Believe This?

Do You Believe This?

Memorial of Saint Martha

Now, go and lead the people where I have told you. See, my angel will go before you. When it is time for me to punish, I will punish them for their sin. Exodus 32:34

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” John 11:21-22

Piety

From “Prophets of a Future Not Our Own”

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing this.

This enables us to do something and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own. (Bishop Ken Untener, 1979)

Study

Perhaps it is most apropos that the readings for today pair the hard-working Moses with hard-serving Martha.

Moses did a lot of mountain climbing, tablet chiseling, desert leading, and battle overseeing. In the end, he never saw the promised land.  After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where the Lord gave Moses the Ten Commandments. That is the place where our reading picks up today where Moses encountered the people worshipping the golden calf. 

Like Jesus, Moses offered himself up as atonement for the idol-worshipping sins of his people.  God accepted that offer but did hint that there would be a time for leadership and a time for punishment.  Now is the time for leadership. However, after wandering in the desert for 40 years, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land on Mount Nebo.

We then encounter Martha of Bethany.  The Magisterium offers two alternate Gospel readings -- the two most famous Martha stories.

In the first, Jesus is seemingly preoccupied.  When he got the word about the death of Lazarus, he attended some (minor?) business for two days before heading back to Judea.

In the second, Martha is seemingly preoccupied. While Mary sat at Jesus’ feet listening and learning, Martha attended to the Holy Hospitality until she had enough and turned to the Lord. “Martha burdened with much serving came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving?”

Martha did a lot of serving and griping and waiting.  For all of her busy-ness, she is among the first other than Peter, to hear and understand.  While Mary sat at home, Martha went out to greet Jesus upon his arrival.  And in this encounter, we meet a woman of extraordinary faith as she recites her “Credo:” “I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”

In the first ten chapters of John’s Gospel, we encounter very few who just believe in Jesus without “evidence.” Martha and the Samaritan women stand out from others who believe only because of a miracle or the others who demand and ignore the signs Jesus performs.

John’s overall emphasis is belief.  And the signs work.  We see the conversion of a few – like the man cured of blindness.  Even the witnesses still had their doubts.  Although Nicodemus tried to intervene with his colleagues, the Pharisees would not give up their doubts. Jesus talks a lot about the gifts that will be bestowed upon those who believe. However, he encounters very few believers. Believers in Jesus become children of God not through birth, or choice or decision, but through God who is the immediate cause of the new spiritual life.

What stands out about the Samaritan woman at the well and Marth’s testimony: they believe based on what they heard, not because of a miracle.  Despite her preoccupations, Martha believes BEFORE Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

Action

Are we seemingly preoccupied?

When Jesus knocks, let’s make sure he does not see a “Gone Fishing” sign. 

Let’s not focus on the flaws we know all too well in Martha.  Focus on her mature faith. Set aside your preoccupations today so you can express and live your belief.

“Prayer Principles” by Rev. Paul Berghout (@FatherPB)

“Prayer Principles” by Rev. Paul Berghout

Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Piety

(Abraham said to the Lord:) “Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?” (Genesis 18:25)

Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me. (Psalm 138:3a)

… he brought you to life along with him, having forgiven all our transgressions; obliterating the bond against us, with its legal claims, which was opposed to us, he also removed it from our midst, nailing it to the cross. (Colossians 2:13-14)

“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)

Study

Prayer Principle Number 1. Even one innocent person is enough to save the whole sinful city. It’s called praying for the sinful majority.

The view that the innocent effect salvation for the wicked is found not only in our First Reading but also in Jeremiah 5:1, Isaiah 53, in the New Testament, and through Our Lady of Fatima.

Specifically, in our First Reading, Abraham is bargaining with God. God is not an abstract entity but a dialogue partner.  The intercession of our prayers can change God’s intent. Some things God will give to us automatically by following his will.

For example, in the Diary of St. Faustina, we read: “The love and sacrifice [of those who love me dearly and pray for others] sustain the world in existence….” (Diary, 367).

Before we pray for the conversion of cities or other people, we need to make sure that we are regularly receiving the Sacrament of Penance. The early Christians replaced “your kingdom come” in the Our Father with “Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us.” They understood that the coming of the Kingdom entails the end-time cleansing of the Holy Spirit, which is related to Ezekiel 36 (see Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor).

Prayer Principle Number 2:  A second prayer principle (from our First Reading) is that God is the only protagonist in our life.  Because prayer is a dialogue with God, woven from silence, in listening, petitions, and praises, the main goal of which is to have a pure heart.

If we recognize that God is the only protagonist in our lives, then we acknowledge that He has the most relevant part of everything. Also, that means everyone else is secondary because we have an “all-in” reference to God.

Prayer Principle Number 3. A third prayer principle is to pray for your own needs. Don’t make the mistake that it’s somehow selfish to pray for your individual needs.  DO pray for your personal needs. Father Faber wrote this classic letter to someone contemplating religious life:

“If you wish not to lose your vocation, you must pray daily to God to give you the gift of virginity, that you may preserve the virginal innocence through his mercy and has not allowed the devil to rob you of. God gives nothing, much less His chief gifts, unless we ask often, and keep asking.”

You also have to pray with persistence. One reason that we don’t receive what we want through prayer is that we give up too quickly. St. Augustine said that God sometimes delays in giving us what we want because he wants our hearts to expand.

Action

Asking for our daily bread is meant to protect us from all stress.  Daily bread comes from the verb, which means “to survive.” We are to ask only for what God has apportioned to us.  When we pray for what is ‘coming to us,’ by God’s liberality and grace, that will be sufficient ‘for the day.’

In today’s Second Reading, the verse says “prayer, petition, with thanksgiving...THEN the peace of God will come.” Notice the word “then”—it has kind of a constant force...THEN the peace of God will come.

A Japanese warrior was captured and thrown into prison. At night, he could not sleep for he feared that his captors would torture him the next morning.  Then the words of his Master came to him: “Tomorrow is not real. The only reality is now.” So, he came to the present — and fell asleep.

When you are comfortable in the present moment, then you have become a person over whom the Future has Lost its grip.  How like the birds of the air and the lilies of the field. No anxieties for the morrow.

You Might Uproot the Wheat

You Might Uproot the Wheat

Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Taking the book of the covenant, he read it aloud to the people, who answered, “All that the LORD has said, we will hear and do.” Then he took the blood and splashed it on the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you according to all these words.”  Exodus 24:7-8

…” If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”  Matthew 13:29-30

Piety

Ah, you know it yourself, Lord, through having borne the anguish of it as a man: on certain days the world seems a terrifying thing: huge, blind, and brutal...At any moment, the vast and horrible thing may break in through the cracks—the thing which we try hard to forget is always there, separated from us by a flimsy partition: fire, pestilence, storms, earthquakes, or the unleashing of dark moral forces—these callously sweep away in one moment what we had laboriously built-up and beautified with all our intelligence and all our love.

Since my human dignity, O God, forbids me to close my eyes to this, teach me to adore it by seeing you concealed within it.[i]

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Study

In the reading from Exodus, we encounter a scene shortly after the first Transfiguration.  Moses and many of his elders went up the mountain to meet God.  Moses alone was allowed to approach carefully and have an intimate conversation with God.

When they went down the mountain in possession of God’s laws, Moses went about immediately to build an altar and place of reverence for the tablets.  Similarly, after the New Testament Transfiguration, Peter offered to build a structure to protect God, Moses, and Elijah. All that busy work proved entirely unnecessary.

The tablets held the kinds of lessons that the later-day Apostles would learn directly from Jesus. While Jesus (in the Gospel) is addressing “weeds,” these obstacles to healthy growth might personify natural and man-made disasters and other evil forces unleashing trouble on us. While the people want to pull up the weeds, Jesus restrains them. As we learn in the notes to the NABRE, Jesus wants to let people continue to grow.

The refusal of the householder to allow his slaves to separate the wheat from the weeds while they are still growing is a warning to the disciples not to attempt to anticipate the final judgment of God by a definitive exclusion of sinners from the kingdom. In its present stage, it is composed of the good and the bad. The judgment of God alone will eliminate the sinful. Until then there must be patience and the preaching of repentance. [ii]

Action

Despite the evident troubles (weeds), Jesus wants to let people continue to grow naturally. As Cynthia Bourgeault notes: “For many of us, the concept of a forward evolutionary journey may feel like false hope. Perhaps it seems that such hope is bought at the cost of all sensitivity to individual suffering and pain, by setting the scale at so vast a magnitude that human lives register as no more than tiny pixels.”[iii]

What if the weeds choke out the new growth?

She notes that the “haunting” prayer woven into Teilhard’s reflection on faith in The Divine Milieu makes clear that it is no cheap optimism he is dispensing here, but a “wrenchingly honest acknowledgment of our human predicament and unfailing fidelity to seeing God in every aspect of the earth, even in our human suffering.” 

We may be discouraged by many things these days.  Stories of the failures of our political, social, and religious leaders abound. Fr. Teilhard lived during both the world wars of the past century.  He even carried stretchers of the dead and wounded in the First World War!  He never gave up hope. His fascinating vision represents the great hope that faith in Christ and a scientific approach to the world can be brought together.

How can we see God in the troubles of our times?

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[i]  Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu, (Harper Perennial Modern Classics: 2001), 112. Emphasis added.

[ii] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/13:24#48013030-1

[iii] https://cac.org/teilhard-for-troubled-times-2017-10-15/

Their Progeny Will Endure

Walker Evans

Their Progeny Will Endure

Memorial of Saints Joachim and Anne, Parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Piety

And for all time, their progeny will endure, their glory will never be blotted out; Their bodies are peacefully laid away, but their name lives on and on. At gatherings, their wisdom is retold, and the assembly proclaims their praise. Sirach 44:13-15

Jesus said to his disciples: "Blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."  Matthew 13:16-17

Study

In our first reading, we encounter how God reveals his glory through the lives of their ancestors, prophets, priests, and rulers. Looking back, Joachim and Anne become a part of this march of history. Some are known to use through books like Chronicles and Kings, yet many are nameless faces long since returned to dust.

Visualize, hard as it may be, the lives led by Joachim and Anne when they became pregnant with the child who would become their daughter Mary. Little did they know the impact that this act of creation would have on sacred history and human traditions.  As they held their infant daughter, could they even begin to fathom that they were holding the baby who would bear the baby who would be God's son?

Joachim and Anne—whether these are their real names or not—represent that entire quiet series of generations who faithfully perform their duties, practice their faith, and establish an atmosphere for the coming of the Messiah, but remain obscure.[i]

 Action

Walker Evans

"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" is a 1941 book written by James Agee with pictures by Walker Evans. They document the lives of impoverished tenant farmers during the Great Depression. Although Evans' was working with the Farm Security Administration, the assignment came from Fortune (ironically!) magazine. The title derives from a passage in the Wisdom of Sirach (44:1) that begins, "Let us now praise famous men and our fathers that begat us."  This passage comes from today's first reading.

Their assignment sought to detail the conditions among sharecropper families in the American South during the "Dust Bowl." It coincided with the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt and the "New Deal" programs designed to help the poorest in our society. Agee and Evans spent eight weeks that summer researching their assignment, mainly among three white sharecropping families mired in desperate poverty. They returned with Evans' portfolio of stark images.  Peruse the book at your library, and you will find families with gaunt faces, adults, and children huddled in bare shacks before dusty yards in the Depression-era nowhere of the deep South.[ii] 

Walker Evans

The pseudonyms used in the book correspond to some genuine families living in Alabama in conditions of abject poverty.  How ironic that this assignment came from Fortune magazine and not (more appropriately?) in photo essays on the pages of the now-defunct magazines "Life" or "Look."  Without the prying eyes of Evans and Agee, these actual families (Burroughs, Tengle, and Fields) would have remained as obscure as Joachim and Anne's contemporaries from ancient Israel.  

Contemplating the anonymous families who are poor reminds me also of the words Jesus speaks near the end of Matthew's Gospel.  "The poor you will always have with you; but you will not always have me." (26:11)

How true this remains today.  Despite much more elaborate government and church social programs, you don't have to look beyond page one of today's newspaper to see how low-income families are wracked by poverty, drug abuse, and more.

How can our piety toward Jesus's long-distant grandparents help us grow sympathy in our hearts for today's parents and grandparents leading low-income families?  These families may live in the rural South or the lands that made up ancient Palestine, or anywhere in the world.

How can a study of and commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals help improve the lives of all? Not only the poor but "their children after them." Consider using these goals to plan and target your charitable giving and volunteer service toward the goals in which you would like to make an impact.

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[i] https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saints-joachim-and-anne/

[ii] Let Us Now Praise Famous Men - Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_Us_Now_Praise_Famous_Men

“Manifesting His Life” by Beth DeCristofaro

“Manifesting His Life” by Beth DeCristofaro

Feast of Saint James, Apostle

Brothers and sisters: We hold this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing power may be of God and not from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. (2 Corinthians 4:7-10)

Jesus said in reply, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" They said to him, "We can." He replied, "My chalice you will indeed drink, but to sit at my right and at my left, this is not mine to give but is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father." (Matthew 20:22-23)

Piety

Holy Apostle, walk with us on our journey of faith.  May your prayers obtain for us the wisdom to discern God’s call and the strength to endure, so that we may grow in holiness and rejoice in communion with all the saints.  We ask this through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 (from a St. James Prayer)

Study

Perhaps the mother of James and John was not in the crowd during Jesus’ parable of the Sower in yesterday’s Gospel.  Or distracted by the group noise she missed the part about God’s good word taking root and growing a harvest.   Yet hitting up a revered leader for favors – thrones in heaven for Pete’s sake! – was probably widespread then as now.  In Mark’s Gospel (10:35-37), it is the sons themselves that make this request of Jesus.  Then, of course, the other followers show their resentment and jealousy and an uproar ensues.  Sounds like a lot of parish committees, corporate boardrooms and family gatherings today.

Jesus is blunt and clear. Following Jesus is not going to be easy and the rewards are not seen by eyes that prefer to focus on the bling of this world. But as he and Paul both affirm, our reward is sharing in the surpassing power of God and kinship with Jesus. Eternally. This mystery gives Paul the grace to disdain worldly gain and the impetus to share these life-fulfilling insights despite the threat to himself.       

In a sermon for the feast of Mary Magdalen, Natalia Imperatori-Lee spoke about the Magdalen as someone who most likely heard and understood deeply what parables such as the Sower were about and who willingly chose the chalice Jesus would drink. Imperatori-Lee said “(Mary Magdalen is) a beacon of hope having witnessed the worst of Jesus’ suffering.  She is among the first to witness his triumph and must share this victory with others.  Hope looks like that.  Not merely something we contain within ourselves although that’s important too.  It’s not a little propeller which pushes us forward to the next day although sometimes we need that.  But hope, Gospel hope, is a combustion engine that propels us outward to a community that needs it most.”[i] 

Action

James and John did drink from the chalice of Jesus’ sufferings and both remained in his love, despite their misguided ambitions.  Am I manifesting the life of Jesus?  By what do I find myself propelled and to what goal?

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[i]  https://vimeo.com/282140118

Illustration:  https://findingperfect.blog/2019/02/16/light-through-broken-places/

“Sow with Faith and Hope” by Colleen O’Sullivan

“Sow with Faith and Hope” by Colleen O’Sullivan

Wednesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.  Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore.  And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: "A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up.  Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil.  It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots.  Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it.  But some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.  Whoever has ears ought to hear." (Matthew 13:1-9)

Piety

The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;

all who come to him will live forever.   (Gospel Acclamation for today’s Mass)

Study

Heinrich Hofmann Georg Hahn,
Behold, A Sower Went Forth to Sow, 1893,
Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

I love a good story.  My grandmother had a seemingly endless supply of tales to tell, and my brother, sister and I can still remember many of them today.  Stories help us to remember the truth being illustrated, whereas a straightforward statement of that same truth might soon disappear from our memories.

In our Gospel reading today, we hear Jesus telling a story, one of five about the Kingdom of Heaven and what it’s like in this section of Matthew’s Gospel.  By the Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew doesn’t mean a place, either here and now or in the future, but rather the network of communities of believers who are committed to following the life and teachings of Jesus.   

Jesus goes down to the edge of the sea and sits down.  He’s ready to share a story with the people gathered, but there are so many, he has to get into a boat so everyone can hear him.  Jesus himself isn’t a farmer, but he lives in an agrarian society, so he weaves his tale around a scenario familiar to any first-century farmer.

He talks about a farmer going out to plant his fields and the difficulties this farmer encounters – hungry birds, rocky soil, thorns, shallow places where roots can’t take hold, days of hot, burning sun drying up what little moisture there is in the soil.  Every farmer in the crowd knows exactly what the Lord is describing.    They’ve all been up against it. 

But maybe Jesus is talking about more than that.  Perhaps he’s thinking of his own life as well.  He came into the world intent on bringing people the love of God.  He prays regularly, checking with his Father, making sure they are in sync and that Jesus is preaching and teaching what he hears from God.  Yet everywhere he goes, he meets with resistance and obstacles.  Jesus has to be discouraged at times.  He isn’t the sort of Messiah the people are looking for.  They are searching for one who will militarily defeat the Romans and set up a triumphant earthly rule.  A carpenter’s son from Nazareth doesn’t fit that bill.  The people, particularly the Jewish leaders, are reluctant to try anything new.  It’s easier to stick to the old ways, where life is governed by hundreds of detailed rules, than to cede any authority to Jesus.  He’s a real threat to the status quo, so much so that the Pharisees are looking for a way to kill him.   About the only people who see something special and wonderful in Jesus are the poor and downtrodden of society, who know they are in need of the love, forgiveness and healing Jesus brings.  

The work of the Kingdom is God’s work.  All any of us can do, including Jesus, is sow the seeds.  Some of what we sow often does amount to nothing.  But in the end, God promises, some of the seeds will hit fertile ground and produce a huge harvest.  It may happen slowly, and we have to keep in mind that God’s time isn’t necessarily our time.

Action

Things may seem fairly bleak for the Kingdom as we look around.  We see emptier pews in many of our churches and closed parishes in many dioceses.  Disillusionment with the Church’s response to clerical sexual abuse abounds.  Expressions of racism and hatred, as well as scenes of violence and despair, are reported daily on our television news shows.  You fill in the blank with whatever is discouraging to you.  Nevertheless, as Christians we seek to have the heart and mind of Jesus.  Given that, we have to keep on sowing.  Jesus didn’t let even the specter of death stop him.  He went on healing the sick, forgiving sinners, and casting out the demons that lay hold of us right up to the very last.   And, as it turned out, even death didn’t have the last word.  God resurrected Jesus from the dead on Easter Sunday. 

Share whatever is weighing on your heart with Jesus in prayer.  Don’t let it stop you from continuing to sow the Word.  We are merely asked to do our part.  In faith and hope, we can leave the final harvest to God.

Image: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Parable_of_the_Sower#/media/File%3ABEHOLD%2C_A_SOWER_WENT_FORTH_TO_SOW.jpg