This is something I wrote a few year back on the Gospel readings for today – I consider it still relevant – The title is Seeds, Weeds and Feeds
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071011.cfm
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071711.cfm
The gospel readings for these two Sundays overflow with agricultural imagery — so much so that one is tempted to describe them as the farmers’ favourite! The UNFAO would do well to adopt some of the metaphors here for its extension work with rural famers! FIAT PANIS unpacked!
Seeds, weeds and needs! Nutrients, nurture, rich environments, rich soil, care and tendering means growth, harvest, rich dividends! Thorns, dry soils, poor environments, poor care and negligent support lead to poor harvest!
What can one take away from these readings?
• Seeds blossom in the right conditions
• Poor environments can choke the living daylights out of the most potent seed
• Potential and actuation are two different things. Nature needs to nurture to actuate! Potential energy needs to become kinetic energy and the right environment is needed for this happen!
A key message is this – when you plant, support the seed to grow and blossom and support can be in many ways – watering, deepening, weeding, pruning, tendering, nurturing, caring, supporting, manuring the soil etc.
Have you done any of these this week for the seeds you either planted or seeds that are around you? Remember that that just a pinch of yeast can make a difference in the size and beauty of a loaf of bread. Be that good yeast today. Catalyse positive risings. Be a force for spiritual risings and growth.
I also see a second key message – when well nurtured, the potential of growth for any seed is limitless – the parable of the mustard seed is the classic example.
There is also a third message – Bad seeds that hide and mingle with good seeds will be sorted out at harvest time and dealt with.
Seeds that persist in unproductivity when all the enabling conditions for growth and flourish have been provided run the risk of being weeded and caste away! Question – Are we optimizing on all the opportunities that God, family and friends have given to grow, bloom, blossom and self-actualize?
If the answer is negative, then today is time to start afresh and recommit to positive growth and to attitudes and actions that would enable us to take off and fly and grow as large as the mustard seed. The future starts now!
Your encouragement should be found in the words of Isaiah 55 and in God’s assurance that His words shall accomplish their purpose and shall not return void. Claim this and ask for the grace to live in manners and act in manners that would actuate this prophecy in your life. Ask for the intercession of the spirit we are assured of in Romans 8. Ask in Faith and Reverence knowing that God is mighty but good, clement and lenient and that He always forgives and gives yet another chance to prove ourselves, to prove ourselves worthy and to grow and flourish and yield the wonderful harvest of beautiful seeds He has planned for our lives.
May your life be one rich and beautiful harvest because of His Grace – amen!
Reflections 