Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Homily
Fatherhood has been the greatest teaching and learning adventure of my life! What’s obvious about parenthood is that parents are responsible for instructing and guiding their children. What’s not so obvious is that our children become our teachers! Some of the lessons we learn are joyful, and others can only be described as painful. Nonetheless, I would never trade being a father. It has been a wonderful blessing and a great gift.
For a moment, I’d like fathers, grandfathers, mothers, and grandmothers to consider this number: 940. “What’s the significance of that?” you ask. 940 is the number of Saturdays between the day your child or grandchild is born and the time he or she turns 18. This is the equivalent of just 2 1/2 years. With work schedules the way they are, does this number change how one might use Saturdays knowing that there is so little time to spend with them? 940 might serve as a reminder to cherish the time we have with our children and to use it wisely.
Fathers, as a former principal who saw the gamut of how dads were or were not a part of their children’s lives, I implore you to value those 940 Saturdays as sacred. Children deserve our attention, which is a visible sign of our love for them. Happy Father’s Day!
On this day, when we celebrate fathers, we are given the remarkable Gospel story of seeds. How appropriate it is! Jesus explains that the kingdom of God is like a seed. A seed has the potential to grow. We are the mustard seeds in God’s creation.
Isn’t a seed a remarkable thing? What we see, the outer shell is not where the potential exists. The outer shell serves to protect what is valuable and precious. The miracle of the seed exists on the inside. A planted seed is ready to sprout under the right conditions. In order for the miracle of growth to occur, the seed needs soil, moisture and light.
In this parable, Jesus is teaching us something about ourselves. Aren’t we, in many ways, a seed? Consider soil: Our human spiritual soil is this faith community. It is here that we are planted, nourishing one another in small but helpful ways.
Consider moisture: Our prayer and sacramental life dampen our outer shell in which the culture tends to wrap us. Holy Scripture and Holy Communion water our spiritual shells. Consider light: Our light is the Light of the World…Jesus. We strain to reach and grow in his warm and marvelous light.
It seems to me that no matter our age, we should consider ourselves seedlings in many ways. We have not yet come to fullness. We are still growing into what God intends.
As a community of faith, we know that our visible bodies are only part of the story. What is of critical importance is our life in Christ! That life exists in our souls—the vibrant location where God’s power and vitality want to burst forth.
It can only emerge if we provide the conditions for it. Our soul soil must be fertilized, tilled, and watered. We hold in our own gardening hands the ability to bring about a great harvest. So how do these small seeds of ours produce an abundant harvest?
Let me suggest two ways. First, prayer. We do not put forth shoots of new growth on our own. We are called to cooperate with God and his mysterious and holy plan for us. His design is hidden in the dark, rich, moist soil of Christ's teachings. It is only through our faithful attention to scripture and prayer that we can open ourselves to the ways God can dramatically change our lives.
I remain firmly convinced that only by God’s grace can I stand here before you as a deacon. I do not intellectually understand how this has happened. There is a mystery in all of this. His blessings dramatically changed my life. A faithful prayer life can bring the most unlikely seed to blossom.
The second way a humble seed can bring forth a harvest is to recognize why a seed lives. It does not live for itself. A sunflower cannot admire its own bright yellow pedals. Nor can it boast of how tall it is. The sunflower lives for us. It grows so we can admire its brilliant colors and its great height!
Our lives - the seed that yearns to reach its full potential as part of God’s kingdom - are to be lived for others. Parents live to give life to their children. They see to their physical and spiritual welfare. Those of us who have been blessed to be parents learn quickly that we are at the beck and call of our children. Watch us spring into action when a child cries out in the night!
An early memory of being called to live for our child took place on the first night our daughter came home. She was relentless in her need for us! As Pat grew more exhausted, I took Joanne to my recliner, put her on my chest, and held her. I spent the night living for her and Pat. Parents are like the mustard seed growing into that tree Jesus talks about. Their branches are places where their children can nest.
Are we ready - really ready - to trust that God is asking us to grow even more in his love? Are we ready to abandon ourselves to the power of God? Are we holding onto our seeds fearfully instead of planting them out of fear that God will ask more of us? Or are we willing to continue sowing seeds, trusting in the mysterious process of God’s love? These are the questions that Mark is asking us to ponder.
Fr. Mike Rashko, a priest in our diocese, shares a similar thought, “Mark asks us to take the seed and boldly let it go... We do not know whether this seed will find good ground. We cannot fathom how it grows. We cannot understand how something so small will become something large enough to change the world. But we must let go of the seed if the harvest is to have a chance.” What Father Rashko is saying to us, I believe, is that we are sowers of the kingdom of God. We share in the holy and divine work of Our Abba...Our Father.
On this Father’s Day, we are provided the opportunity to steal a glance into the kingdom of Our Father through the miraculous power of a seed. This congregation is a visible example of the variety of seeds in God’s kingdom! We are the seeds meant to grow in God's love, not for ourselves but for our families, our friends, and strangers!
This week, in order to live out the Gospel, we should promise ourselves that we will sow the kingdom of God with an act of forgiveness, an act of generosity toward a difficult person, an act of saying to your child no matter his or her age, “I love you.” Your holy act of sowing these seeds will bring the kingdom of God to life in a soul who may desperately need it. Will you commit to casting a seed?
How many of the 940 Saturdays are left in your child’s or grandchild’s time at home? Resolve to increase your seed planting efforts. Time is so very precious when it comes to family life!
Our humble seed, combined with the movement of the Spirit, will yield a great harvest! Trust that God will do the rest because his kingdom - the entirety of it - lives in us and depends on us! Amen!
