Thursday, June 21, 2012

Buried Seed (2012-06-17)

This is my homily for 17 June 2012 (11th Sunday). I am a Catholic chaplain in Teaneck at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) campus and for the FDU Newman Catholic Association. We celebrate Catholic Mass - during Fall and Spring semester - every Sunday Evening (7:30 p.m.) at the Interfaith Chapel, 842 River Road, Teaneck, NJ.  We resume Sunday August 26, 2012.


17 June 2012  Ezequiel 17:22-24   | Salmo 91   |     2 Corintios 5:6-10     |  + Marcos 4:26-34

[_01_]        This is how it is with the Kingdom of God. A man scattered seed on the ground… (in the earth).   He went to sleep….. it grew while he was sleeping. The seed grows of itself, though he knows not how.

( “El reino de Dios se parece a un hombre que echa simiente en la tierra. Él duerme de noche y se levanta de mañana; la semilla germina y va creciendo, sin que él sepa como.”)

He knows not how … agriculture, the environment, science …work? Really?

Observing this man, would we say that he is really and completely clueless, in the dark about how his wheat, corn, grapes are developing?

Or, might we simply say that the mean is simply not able to direct and control that growth by his own power.

Of his own, the man can dig, plant, provide some water, but he also relies on the sun to shine and the rain to fall, phenomena outside of his personal climate control settings.

In the darkness, in the recesses, underneath the soil, the earth, the roots and plants generate, grow …and live invisibly. They have a hidden life.

 [_02_]     This Sunday is Father´s Day.  And, as we know, fathers and mothers plant and prepare their children ….   In fact, they often do this while we were sleeping and resting. Our fathers and mothers went to bed later and awoke earlier so that we can could rest.
Our parents – themselves – made investments…

[_03_]     Also, recognizing that we – as children – are always moving closer to a time of harvest, whether towards the harvest of graduation, the harvest of a marriage and family, the harvest of our life´s calling, our life´s career… parents have also tried to prepare us, to train us.

Nevertheless, our parents cannot control the climate of sun and rainfall, of success and struggle for us either.

Rather, they are simply teaching us – by word and example to love God, love our neighbor, teaching us also compassion, self sacrifice …and sometimes, the environmental conditions are difficult.

They also teach us to be prepared, to think, work and to understand sometimes, we have to wait overnight …or have to wait several weeks or months to see the fruit – the results – our of labors

The man sleeps while his plants are growing.  However, he is not a passive bystander waiting for the delivery of an overnight package.

He sleeps, he rests because he has worked all day…

The man who sleeps has done his homework. Now, he waits also for the harvest by listening and being attentive to the Holy Spirit, day and night.

This is also what we have learned from our parents, of our responsibility to care for ourselves, to care for others …to nurture the life which God has given us.  [_fin_










  


No comments:

Post a Comment