A rather unusual gardener

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Planting corn in El Salvador

Homily Outline for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

On this 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we hear a parable that presents us with a vivid image of the gospel… the sower and the seed. I suspect most of you have planted a garden at one time or another… a show of hands, how many have gardened or farmed? Drawing on that experience then, let’s look more closely at this parable, starting right at the beginning… There is something strange here that it might be easy to miss! When I have helped my mom plant a garden, and more recently when I’ve planted my own garden, a great deal of effort precedes the actual sowing of the seed! There’s the spreading of manure or compost in the fall, the roto-tilling or spading in the spring, the careful laying out of rows and raking the soil to break up large clumps. Finally the holes or furrows are made to accept the seeds… No gardener I know throws seeds on sidewalks or roads, or in the midst of rocks, or in the midst of a thicket of thistles! But God does!

What kind of gardener is God? Think about that… these seeds, representing “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” are strewn about all over the place, almost indiscriminately. Not surprisingly, they suffer a variety of fates.

Although surprising, this is good news for us today. My heart is not always rich, deep, fertile soil, free of weeds and rocks… very often my heart is hardened or choked with busyness, and I suspect your hearts are often like that also. And yet, in Divine Generosity, God sows the seed of grace and life nonetheless, and entrusts the fruitfulness of that seed to our free response.

The 120 Chinese Martyrs

Today, July 9th, is actually the feastday of a new saint in the Church, St. Augustine Zhao Rong and his companions… this feast celebrates 120 Chinese Martyrs who were killed for the faith between 1648 and 1930. St. Augustine was a Chinese soldier who converted and became a priest. In 1815 he was imprisoned, tortured, and died rather than reject Jesus Christ. Catholic and other Christian missionaries have tried for centuries to bring the Gospel to China, but until recently, with little success. The seeds of truth and conversion did not appear to find fertile soil. However, in the last 50 years, in the midst of much persecution, the Gospel has begun to spread. Now perhaps 10%, or roughly 130 million people, are Christians, and about 1% or 13 million are Catholics. This may be a small percentage, but it is nearly half as many Christians as here in the United States! Humanly, it seemed that the seeds of faith found only rock and thorn, but in God’s time these seeds now seem to be bearing fruit! As God tells us through

St. Augustine Zhao Rong

the prophet, “So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; my word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

When we look into our hearts and lives it is easy to be scandalized by our own weakness, our sins, our failures. It is easy to say to ourselves, “Well, I hope someone else will be faithful and good, because I’m just not cut out for it.” Or, perhaps, we might say to ourselves, “Well, I’m good enough… plenty of people are worse than me… no need to really do anything radical.” Both mistakes cut us off from the grace and life God wants to offer us. God in His generosity offers not just to plant the good seed of faith in our hearts, but also to till the soil there, to break up the big clods of unforgiveness, to throw out the hard rocks of bitterness, to pull up the weeds of sin and temptation. Will we cooperate; will we participate in this good work? Will we respond to this precious gift with the same courage that lead those Chinese martyrs… men, women, and children, young and old, priests, sisters, mothers and fathers… the same courage that led them to give up their lives rather than surrender or abandon their faith?

Make no mistake… the same spiritual combat that lead to their martyrdom is very much at work in our society, albeit in less obvious ways. As our second reading says, “All creation groans in labor pains even until now… we also groan within ourselves.” To allow this seed of faith to grow in our hearts, we are called to choose the good and reject evil. We are called to forgive our enemies, help the poor, to share all that we have been given. We are called to put God and family before career and pleasure. We are called to defend the dignity of every human person from conception to natural death. We are called to defend marriage between man and woman, to fight for the unborn, to fight for our own families and children against the attacks of pornography, addiction, and selfishness.

God will do this in us if we will open the door, if we will permit the seed of faith to be sown. His grace, His strength, His wisdom will work in us if we will allow it. At this very Mass we will draw near this altar to receive the Lord’s Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity. This food of life, this good seed, will be offered to us, planted in us as it were. God offers us this not because we’re such fertile soil, but because He is good and loving! Will we respond to love with love? Will we respond to God’s giving of Himself by giving Him ourselves? No other response is fitting… may we receive infinite love from this altar, and offer all that we are in return.