Word to the Wise
Friday, January 31, 2020 - Friday in the 3rd Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Sam 11:1-4a, 5-10a, 13-17 and Mark 4:26-34]"This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come." [Mark]
JANUARY 31 ST. JOHN BOSCO, sdb
I occasionally meet people who have been present at one of the many retreats and parish missions that I have preached over the years. One of the things they often mention about the experience is that they remember the stories and images that I used to make a particular point. In my preaching notes for those events, I simply put down a note that says, "the story about......" but I may use it at different times. I see this at work in the gospels over and over again.
The gospels were composed from the memories of those who were present or who heard the stories from first hand witnesses. It is clear that they remembered the parables and images used by Jesus in his teaching. These parables (or metaphors or analogies, etc) were matched to the day to day experiences of the audience: farmers and crops, yeast and flour, masters and servants, shepherds and sheep, wineskins and wine,, etc. etc. I
In today's gospel scripture, there are two agricultural images that give two contrasting views of the same reality! The first focuses on farming itself as an image of preaching the Kingdom. The second focuses on the seed and its potential. For anyone who desires to be an intentional minister, these two parables will tell him or her that once one has done one's best to COMMUNICATE, then PATIENCE with POTENTIAL is required. As St. Paul says in using a similar image, "It is God who gives the increase!" (1 Cor 3;7).
I have experienced this in two different ways. The first has been that in an itinerant ministry of retreats and parish missions, I scattered the seed (like Johnny Appleseed, to use a familiar American story) but rarely could experience the long term results. I had to leave that to the Holy Spirit. The second way is in campus ministry where one has to be alert to the moment when a simple seed is planted in the mind and heart of a student and then patience with the potential kicks in over several years of undergrad and graduate education.
Treasure your stories of Christian experience and share them at the right moment without worrying whether or not you will see immediate results. God will take care of the rest. AMEN
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