Saturday, September 22, 2018

       Readings: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/092218.cfm

Today, in Mercy,  both Paul and Jesus teach their followers by using images they would be familiar with – seed, wheat, planting, and waiting for harvest.

Even those of us far removed from such images may have planted a few things at some time.  Picture a kindergartner pushing a seed into a paper cup filled with dirt.  She watches everyday for the green shoot, impatient for its appearance.

Paul’s community seems infected with the same kind of impatience regarding the end of time and their being raised to new life.

Paul makes me laugh with his own impatience at their constant questions. He responds to their nagging like this:

You fool!
What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.
And what you sow is not the body that is to be
but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind.

Jesus is a lot gentler when he teaches about the Sower and the Seed. At the end of the parable, Jesus gives his followers the key to achieving the full harvest of grace. Perseverance! 

It is the same tool any farmer must employ in the fields. It is the same strategy we must use as we sow good works through our lives. The harvest is slow coming, but Jesus promises it is worth the investment and the waiting.

Music: When You Believe~ sung by Whitney Houston and Mariah Carey