May the Lord give you peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 13th June 2021. We celebrate the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.
We reflect from Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; and the Gospel from Mark 4:26-34.
In his book The Book of Gratitude: An Encounter Between Life and Faith by Pablo R. Andinach shares a story. A man was travelling through the desert was hungry, thirsty, and tired when he found a tree that provided abundant shade, delicious fruit, and a spring ran under it. Traveler wanted to leave a blessing to the tree. He blessed it this way: May it be God’s will for all the trees that come from your seed to be like you.”
There are two types of seeds. Whether a planted seed or a mustard seed, the seeds have the power to grow and become fruitful. The seed that grows on its own and the mustard seed in common is that the credit of growth belongs to God. “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.” (1 Cor. 3:6).
Growth is inherent in every seed, and it has the potentiality and power to grow. God’s care and nurturing for all the seeds and therefore there is no way the growth can be curtailed and bottled up. Some of the human attempts are made to modify its genes.
A little boy was about to write an exam who lit four handles to His most favorite Saint Antony of Padua. Then he knelt to pray closing his eyes. When he opened the eyes and saw three candles were blown off except one. Seeing this, he felt dejected. At that time, in a convincing voice the candle that was burning spoke to him not to lose faith. So, he enquired the candle about its name and learnt that the name of the candle was faith. The candle encouraged him to light the other three candles namely love peace and prosperity. Our life will be bright and blooming when the light of faith shines in our life.
Growth is inevitable and unstoppable when provided with conducive atmosphere and support. Faith is the inner power to grow.
However small and insignificant we might be, we are endowed with growth. There is no one born to be impotent in loving, and fruitful.
Growth is the reward for our faithfulness to the Lord. Our fruitfulness needs to give shelter to many.
Are we a GM seed? Can we frustrate God? Or is God frustrating us? Kingdom is the presence rather than a place.
We are in a hurry all the time. Do we have some time to witness the mystery of growth unfolding in front of our eyes? God wants us to take to the school of nature to teach a life lesson for our spiritual growth.
Jesus teaches us all that our patience and faith rewards us in time. We want the growth indeed. But the means we employ suppress the growth or bring a modified growth. We have equipped, up skilled to force the desired growth in the seeds and so we interfere with the mystery of growth.
Growth is happening even if we are not aware of it. The spreading of God’s reign is ultimately God’s work, and that work is always under way, even when we do not see it or understand it.
God is at work even in unpromising situation to induce growth. God never stops working even when we do not notice them. We just need to learn to be silent to observe the sacred rhythm that is dabbing our being.
Our selfishness, greed, seeking fast solutions, and immediate results are killing the possibility of growth. On the contrary, the seed might be tiny as it can be, but it contains the possibility of all the possible growth one can wish. In faith, let us be silent and serene what the Lord is doing. Everyone has the potentiality to bring the best with God. Walter Brueggemann inspires us: A blessing is an act, gesture, or word whereby one person transmits the power of life to another. May the Lord bless us to grow and may we allow others to grow too. Have a fruitful day. God bless you.