Wednesday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time
My friend and I are cultivating a garden. This is my first time to tend such a large and diverse garden, and I’m delighted by the opportunity to watch the various seeds sprout, grow, and bear fruit. It’s great fun to pick fresh produce and bring it immediately into the kitchen to prepare it for dinner. We just harvested the garlic on Saturday, reaping what we sowed back on All Saints Day. The theme of “sowing and reaping” is a recurrent one in scripture. I’m grateful for the times that God gives us easy metaphors to understand our lives as children of God and followers of Christ. It’s obvious that if I plant brussels sprouts seeds that I will harvest brussels sprouts from the resulting plant. I wouldn’t look for brussels sprouts under the leaves of my zucchini plants! The same is true in my life. While the “sowing and reaping” imagery makes sense and is obvious, it’s not always easy to recognize within ourselves the type of seeds we are sowing. Sometimes we look at the harvest – the behavioral patterns of our lives, the health of our relationships, our spirituality – and we puzzle over these situations, unsure of how things got to be as they are, oblivious to the seeds we planted along the way. In today’s first reading, the prophet Hosea gives us a clear directive regarding the type of seed we must sow and what we can expect from the resulting harvest.
Hosea calls God’s people back to fidelity, away from their idolatrous worship. Hosea 10:12 reads, Sow for yourselves justice, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain down justice upon you. A more literal translation of the Hebrew text helps us to better understand this verse: Sow for yourselves righteousness / reap in mercy / break up your fallow ground / for it is time to seek God till he comes and rains righteousness (justice) on you. Note the relationship between righteousness and mercy. Called to sow seeds of righteousness, we participate in the lovingkindness of God – the extravagant, unconditional, merciful love of God. Being a righteous person is not about following a rule book or code of conduct. Fundamentally, a righteous person is a loving person after the pattern of God’s mercy.
Two different Hebrew words are used in this verse for righteousness. The term used at the end to describe what God will shower upon us can be translated as either righteousness or justice. From the same Hebrew root comes the word, charity. The Kingdom of God is all about righteousness, justice, and charity. When we sow in righteousness and reap in mercy, we participate in advancing God’s Kingdom of justice and charity. In today’s Gospel, Jesus sends us out to proclaim, the Kingdom of heaven is at hand. We make that proclamation by our lives as we sow the seeds of the Kingdom.
God invites us to break up the unplowed ground. Today let us examine our consciences and our lives. Is there fallow ground – terrain within our hearts that we have kept off to the side, unplanted, untended, unavailable for God’s use? Can we offer this abandoned part of ourselves to God today and ask the Holy Spirit to plow it and make it fertile? Practically speaking, what are some seeds we might plant in this prepared soil with the desire to reap the fruit of unfailing love? Could we sow seeds of understanding as we seek to listen to diverse viewpoints rather than being quick to critique, condemn, and judge? Might we sow seeds of compassion, being willing to suffer with others and deeply feel their needs in addition to our own? Can we plant forgiveness in our new field such that relationships might be restored and renewed? You know the seeds you need. You know the help you need from God today so that the field of your heart will be ready for planting. Let’s ask God for what we need today, confident that it is God’s desire that we sow in righteousness and reap in mercy.
- Elizabeth Wourms