Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ez 17: 22-24, 2 Cor 5: 6-10, Mk 4: 26-34

 

 

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

 

Partners with God

Here is a version of the creation that goes like this. When God was creating the world, he did it bit by bit. He made the trees, the grass, the animals, the birds, the fish, and so on. As he was making these things, the angel kept asking, ‘Is the world finished yet?’ To which God would reply with a simple ‘No’.

Finally, God made people, and said to them, ‘I’m tired. I want you to finish the world. If you agree to do so, then I promise to be your partner.’ They agreed.  After this, whatever the angels enquired of God if the world was finished, the reply would come. ‘I don’t know. You will have to ask my partners.’

There is something we can do, and which we have to do. God will not do it for us. Not that he couldn’t do it. It’s just that he wants us to be partners with him. We have to plant the seed. That’s our part. But having done that, we have to acknowledge that we can’t do everything, we can’t make the seed grow. That’s God’s part. And God does his part. Any farmer or gardener will tell you that.

So, if there is something we want to do, or goals we would like to achieve, let us not sit around dreaming about them. Let us do something, even if it’s something very small.  Let us take that first step. Let us plant one seed. If we do that, then we can be sure that in good time God will see to it that we have a harvest to reap. Meanwhile, as Paul says, ‘We have to go by faith and not by sight.’ (Second reading)

Once the food buyer for a residential school in Boston went to farmers’ market. Passing a stand that was heaped with beautiful sweet corn, the buyer asked the farmer who was selling it, ‘Did you grow this corn? ‘No,’ came the reply. ‘I planted the seed.’

 

After gathering in a bountiful harvest, a farmer took off his cap. Then standing in the middle of the  empty cornfield, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘And thank you, Lord, for the fine harvest.’ And the Lord looked down and said, ‘And thank you. We did a good job.’

We are the work of God’s hands, but we are also God’s hands at work.

 

Peace and all good!

Fr. Valery Burusu

Parochial Administrator