Friday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time
We have a garden that we do our best to tend; being where we live, it includes a fence to help stave off the deer. Within the fence, we have three large plots with paths separating them and a path around the outside edges. Each year we attempt to grow a variety of plants and vegetables with varying success. A number of factors play into our ability to produce fruit; obviously, our plan is to sow seed and establish plants in rich soil. However, we notice that sometimes the growth of our plants is impacted by lack of water. Or this year, we’ve had several strong, heavy downpours with flood-like strength that oversaturated some of the plants, washed away much of the topsoil, and drowned some of the recently sown seeds. In other instances, the weeds got out of control and encroached on some of the plants, stealing nutrients and choking the root system. We’re not garden experts but we try to follow some logical steps when it comes to placement, cultivation, planting, and thinning throughout the growing season. We want all of our seeds to have good, rich soil to give them the best chance at producing vegetables and flowers to harvest throughout the summer and fall. I’m currently saddened by how much the heavy rains this summer have harmed our zucchini and tomato plants. Alternatively, we have sunflowers ten feet tall (no joke) and cucumbers that are about to produce what looks like “a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
In the Gospel today, we hear Jesus explain to his disciples the parable of the sower. The seed is sown far and wide and has landed in a variety of locations. The beauty that I see in this explanation is the explicit parallel relationship of sower and seed to God the Father and Jesus; God is the sower; Jesus is the seed--the word of God being sown far and wide, desiring to take root in us, penetrating our mind, heart, and soul. God’s love is unreasonably abundant and completely illogical. Jesus is the love of God, the word being sown. God’s grace, love, and mercy is boundless, infinite, immeasurable, never-ending; it is sown for all.
So what does this mean for us? How do we cultivate our hearts and our lives to be rich, fertile soil to produce fruit a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold? We cannot always control external factors such as a turbulent storm in our life or worldly distractions. How much time do we spend worrying about our jobs, schedules, meetings, recognition, money, vacation, social media, politics, television? There’s nothing inherently wrong with the existence of these things, but what takes priority? Are we cultivating our relationship with the word of God, spending time in prayer, loving our neighbor, imitating the extravagant love of God? May our love radiate far and wide and dig our roots deeply in the faith, hope, and love of Jesus, the seed striving to be sown in our hearts.
Abundant Blessings,
Brandon Meyer