Once the seed is sown, the farmer goes home. Then the soil, nutrients, water, oxygen, sun, and so on do all the work to make the plant grow. To be a Christian is simpler than simple. It is a gift. Once you get the seed sown on Sunday, God will move the whole universe to make it grow.
Last week we celebrated the seed of the Declaration of Independence. Pretty tiny seed but pretty amazing tree we got right now.
Jesus speaks about sowing because he wanted to be relevant to his audience, but all this talk about farming sounds so foreign to us. We get our food, not from the soil, but from the supermarket. We idolize organic food, but our lifestyle is “processed”.
Our life is like the grass that:
In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers and fades (Psalm 90).
Remember that at the end of the day, (of our life) we are just seeds waiting to be sown. As Jesus said and did, “unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” For the menu today, we have the fruit of the resurrection, both in the Word of God and the Eucharist.
God does almost everything (nourishing, and growing to seed) we do almost nothing, (letting him plant it in us) but if we don’t do our almost nothing, God cannot do his almost everything.
May Mary, the good soil who received the seed of God through her spouse, the Holy Spirit, intercede for us now and at the hour when we will be planted.
Father Maloney used to say that one of the amazing things about coming to mass is that at least for one hour a week you are 100% sure that you are where God wants you to be. The reason why you are here at Church right at this second is that God wants to sow in your heart a word that you will need for this coming week. You'd better leave with that seed, if not, you might have wasted your time. Let us pray… “Lord plant your word in our hearts.”