Preparing the Soil well.

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time. July 10th, 2011

Today we read a very familiar passage-a parable we have heard many times. Jesus speaks to us about the planting of seeds- about the soil, how it grows, and ultimately the harvest. I think we would all like to imagine that our hearts are the good soil and that we produce a good harvest with our lives.

But perhaps the truth is that we are not as open to the Word of God as we would like to think, and so we need more of the fertilizer of God’s Grace to help us produce more good fruit. In today’s Gospel, Jesus points out the obstacles of the world, obstacles that try to hinder us from allowing the word of God to fully take root in our hearts and minds in the seedbed of our faith.

One of the obstacles Jesus speaks of is the devil. Satan, like a crow, steals away the seed before it even has a chance to grow; he does this by lies. Our world today is full of the “spirit of the evil one”, the “father of lies.” Even though it has much good, our western culture nonetheless is one steeped in many, many lies, which have been sown by the devil himself. Believing the lies is often justified with reasons such as “it’s my choice” or “it was for the good of others” or “I deserve it” or how about this one- “the child would have had a difficult life anyway.”

In this environment the devil also tries very subtly to make us question basic truths of our faith. It begins with a question we have about some aspect of our faith—now, nothing wrong with questions, questions mean our intelligence is searching for the truth. However, instead of forming our intellect and enriching our faith with and through the teachings of the Church, we choose to hear the voice of the world telling us the Church is wrong and out of date. Then doubt creeps in along with the temptations that come from the modern media and movies that are continually attacking our Catholic faith, the Holy Father, the Church herself, even God Himself. For example, best selling novels like the “DaVinci code”. Ignorance can then mislead us to questions like, “is the Church really hiding from me and from the world some great secret—like did Jesus really marry Mary Magdalene and did the two of them have a daughter. And did the Church over the last two thousand years try to kill of this bloodline of Jesus which is really the Holy Grail.” I am not making this up. These are the ridiculous accusation in a novel that has sold millions of copies to poor souls, many of whom are catholic, souls who because of their lack of knowledge, actually believe such unfounded lies sown by the devil himself and spread by poor souls taken in by him.

To combat this obstacle to our faith, the devil and the spirit of the world, we discover that for the Word of God to take deep root in our minds and hearts, we must work hard to prepare the soil of our souls in order to make it good soil so the devil can’t snatch it away from us. To do this, we need to continually study the truth that comes from God, because God is Truth. When we study the Word of God in Sacred Scriptures, given to us through the teachings of the Church, which is the Divine Institution and instrument in which God gives us the fullness of the truth, the seeds of faith have a good soil to fall into and take root and grow.

Additionally if we work the soil, the seeds of faith, which are sown when we hear the Gospel proclaimed and explained each week, can more and more begin to produce fruit in our lives; and consequently, we can begin to more fully have a living and vibrant faith. To work the soil well, we need to humbly ask God for help in order to open ourselves more fully to the seed of His truth.

And God will help us, if we do our part by listening more carefully to the prayers and readings, especially the Gospel, in order to understand and remember what we hear in the homily. Remember in the homily Christ speaks to his people in and through his priest, however, limited the priest may be. The priest may be a more or less effective homilist, his message may come through loud and clear or dull and garbled, we may like him or not, but God nonetheless can and does speak to you through him, if you keep the soil ready. It’s the message that is important, not the messenger.

Other obstacles to the Word of God not taking root in our lives stem from trials, persecutions, or from caring too much for material security and comfort or pleasure. At the root of these obstacles is something fundamental to all humans and that is-- we fear suffering, we do not like to suffer in any way. When we have trials - our greatest fears are realized. In the midst of our trails we look at others who seemingly have no problems and we begin to think, “If God were really good, he would just change or remove all of my problems.”

Likewise, in persecutions, we fear being ridiculed for our faith. We don’t want to suffer being embarrassed or ashamed. Sadly, we fear the loss of human respect, much more than offending our Blessed Lord. Or, our fear stems from our lack of knowledge of our faith which prevents us from being able to stand up to other’s who mock our faith and call the Church’s teaching into question.

Also, in caring too much about worldly and material security or comfort, we fear that in following the Gospel more fully we might have to do without or be inconvenienced; we then end up becoming indifferent to our faith. We look instead for pleasure, even illicit pleasure to make us feel good. We can then become narcissistic looking only to our own needs wants instead of the needs of our neighbor, the needy and poor. We then refuse to change, only seeing that others need to change and not ourselves.

In battling this obstacle to our faith, and really to combat all the obstacles to our faith, it is necessary that we have to be willing to deny ourselves, to suffer; in fact, suffering is an essential part of our life of faith. Without suffering a little, we would not be able to grow in virtue and character. Let me explain with an example. I once remember an interview with Michael Jordan, the retired great Basketball player for the Chicago Bulls and time World Champion. Was it just an easy or natural thing? Someone said to him, “it must be great to have been so gifted of a basketball player.” Jordan responded something to the effect that, yes it was a great blessing; however, don’t forget all the hard work, the many hours I practiced everyday; the great sacrifice and even suffering I endured to make use of that talent. I was on the court when no one else was, practicing, honing my talents” But if it is this way it is in ordinary human affairs, like basketball, how much more so with spiritual affairs, our relationship with God.

However, in light of the intense effort our spiritual life of faith entails, St. Paul encourages us not too lose heart; “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.” We see small glimpses of this glory in human affairs- such as Michael Jordon’s victories. Yet, the glory of human success pales to the fruit of spiritual success, in other words growing in our relationship with god. St. Paul, reminds us of how much athletes suffer and deny themselves in order to win a crown that fades away, but how little man is willing to suffer for a crown that never fades, the victor of eternal life.

Remember, St. Paul, himself, suffered so much in an effort to follow the pattern set by Jesus our Savior. Jesus passed through terrible suffering to arrive at the resurrection. So too must each one of us. A seed sown must die to bear fruit; we must suffer and die to self, in order to bear good fruit. Nothing good comes easy, especially the good of heaven, we have to deny ourselves so we can love God and others in order to achieve it; “The Kingdom of Heaven is taken by force.” So we join our sufferings, however small to the passion of Christ. Jesus then transforms our suffering into fruit that lasts eternally. Jesus builds in us virtues-both human and divine. Human- as we can be more loving to our neighbor; and Divine, for the theological virtues are deepened in our hearts. We grow in our exercise of faith, hope and charity- the wonderful gifts we received in our baptism; we bear the fruit of God’s love in our lives, we can then share God’s love with others.

Let us today, as we celebrate this Eucharist, ask Jesus to make our hearts the good soil for His Divine work. We don’t have to go it alone, Jesus will help us if we only ask Him in prayer, He desires to help us for He knows how weak we can be. Let us surrender to Him all of our fears, all of our sufferings, past, present and future, and unite them to His passion, which will in a few moments be re-presented to us at this Holy Mass. Let us beg Him to deepen virtues in our lives, so that we can grow in love of Him and through and in this, love one another bear good fruit in our lives. Holy Mary, mother of our faith, mother of our hope, mother of our charity, pray for us. Help us to bear the fruit in our lives that will last for eternity. Amen.