Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

seeds

Growing Within US

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Mark’s Gospel is full of stories, parables about the Kingdom of God.  The fourth chapter alone has three stories and all three are about seeds.  In one story Jesus tells of a farmer who planted seed in both good and not so good soil.  That’s the story Jesus elaborates on making it easy to understand. But the second, (which was the first parable that was just read) is a little more mysterious.  It describes how the seed grows without the farmer knowing how.  The third marvels at how large beautiful plants can grow from such tiny seeds.

Literally, the word parable means “a riddle.”  Jesus told more than 40 riddles or parables during his ministry.  Usually when a person tells you a riddle, they eventually tell you the answer.  But Jesus only explained one parable to the crowds – the parable of the Sower and the Seed.  Mark lets us know that Jesus did explain everything to his disciples in private.  Then, Jesus ascended into heaven and took the answers with him!  So that leaves us, with a lot of figuring out to do.

I’m told that one of the most amazing seeds in the world is Chinese bamboo.  It lies buried in the soil for five years before above-ground sprouts begin to appear leading one to believe it has died, is dormant, or stunted or defective seed.  During those long five-years it is important to cultivate, water and fertilize it regularly.  When the seedlings finally emerge from the ground, you can almost watch them grow before your very eyes  – growing at an astonishing rate, ninety feet into the air in just six weeks.  That’s fifteen feet a week, more than two feet a day, two inches every hour.  Why does it take so long to emerge, and then grow so fast once it does?  Plant experts say that during its first five years, the seed is busy building it’s elaborate root system underground that enables it to grow ninety feet in six weeks.

We can be tempted to want parables to unfold in neat little, decodable life-lessons.  But that’s not Jesus way.  He simply floats the parable out there, to rise or fall on ears of those who hear more than is said.  Those who have learned to really listen and read between the lines.

I am reminded of a short film that was popular in the 1970s – produced by a Canadian film maker: “The Parable.”  It was described by critics as “a very subtle Christian worldview.”  It raised eyebrows and questions about the prophetic role of the artist.  There were teachers’ guides galore explaining the symbolism in the story.  However, the film maker said he did not see Christ in the story.  It was not his intention to do anything other than tell a good short story and maybe win an award.

Parables are like dreams.  I can learn about universal symbolism but only the dreamer herself can discern the deep and hidden meaning of her dream.  We may both have dreams about rocks falling on us but each of us must interpret what the rocks represent.  You cannot explain for me what my dream about floating like a manatee down the Peace River means for me.  You may guess what it might mean for you if you had a similar dream.  If I am deathly afraid of water it may terrorize me while it may mean calm and serenity for you.

Remember the Chinese bamboo: God’s Kingdom grows within us in a similar way.  It takes a long time to emerge.  Sometimes it takes so long we wonder, “Did the seed of God’s kingdom planted in me at Baptism ever take root?  Maybe it fell on a rock in my heart and died.  Maybe it got choked by the thorns of my sins.”  More often than not, the seed of God’s Kingdom is building an elaborate root system inside.  Its growth may not be visible for a long time, but eventually something wonderful and beautiful will emerge.

This means that we need to trust God who in the first place planted the seed of the Kingdom in us.  He understands what’s happening inside us because he sees into the heart, even though we don’t.  We also need to be patient with ourselves and with each other.  Even though the Kingdom may not seem to have taken root in you, and you don’t seem to be getting any holier, there’s no need to be discouraged.  Keep on cultivating the seed with private and communal prayer, Eucharist and Lectio.  And, trust that others are making similar efforts to cultivate the seeds in their lives.  Hold in your mind the image of that bamboo … so much happening beneath the surface that the God of surprises patiently cultivates to bring to blossom in our lives!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

In your prayers, kindly remember S. Elizabeth and her family …  Sister’s nephew Janosh and his 3-year-old son, Daniel drowned over the week-end in a rip tide tragedy at Apollo Beach, FL. 

May they rest in peace!  And may the family be sustained in faith and the comfort of friends who mourn with them.  Sister is with the family in Riverview …  some information can be found on BayNews 9 and Facebook.

Elizabeth Mathai (srelizabeth@ymail.com)

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The Law of Life

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I’m sure you’ve heard it said there are three things that are best left out conversation at of family gatherings. You know them: Religion, sex, and politics.  But, unless your family has taken an oath of silence, we do talk about those things. We just do it really badly.  I think there may be one more topic we do not talk about.  Death.  Yes, we acknowledge death when it happens but for the most part we do not talk about death with any real depth or substance, and certainly not with any enthusiasm.  Most people try to deny it, ignore it or just avoid it.

The death of our loved ones is too real, too painful. Our own death is too scary. The relationships and parts of our lives that have died are too difficult. So, for the most part, we just avoid the topic of death. Besides it’s a downer in a culture that mostly wants to be happy, feel good, and avoid difficult realities.

In today’s reading Jesus brings up the topic of death in an indirect way.  You can almost see Jesus words when He says “I am troubled now.”  They are so visually clear.  He told his listeners: “If a seed is planted into the ground and it does not die, it remains a seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds and seedlings and those seeds and their seedlings produce much fruit.”

It all begins with the seed dying.   So, could it be that the key to life is death?  Could it be that the key to living is dying?  Could it be that dying is important to living? Think what happens when seeds are planted into the ground.

I came “this close” to being a biology major because in my early days in community someone thought it would be good if we had a member who could teach upper grades science.  [But I was saved by an educational career specialist who recognized that my talents – and bent – lay in another field and direction.]

If you’ve ever taught children in the lower grades, or you may remember yourself, putting a lima bean in a wet paper towel against the inside of a glass so you could see what would happen.  Recall how we put one of the containers with beans on a window sill and the other in a dark cabinet?   Then we noted our “observations” – our big new scientific word.  We witnessed what the teacher told us to be true.  Inside every seed is an embryo and every embryo has a root and a shoot; and inside that little embryo, (and this is the real a miracle), there is an “on” and “off” switch.  REALLY!  Every seed has a “on” and “off” switch; they really do!

There is also a thin coat around that seed which protects it from oxygen getting in prematurely.  When the dormant seed is planted into the ground, and allowed to mature naturally, at the right time, the switch goes “ON” and the seed takes in water, and it miraculously begins to expand –  the seed coat breaks and the seed begins to mature and produce sugar and protein. And then down goes the little roots and up grow the little shoots, and the shoots produce more seeds which produce more fruit.  And, that’s when the seed dies!

Jesus said this!   “Unless a seed dies, it remains a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds and much fruit.”  This is the law of life that Jesus teaches us today.  It is in dying that we live.  In fact it is only by first dying that we will ever begin living.

When the cycle of nature is disrupted … when death does not produce new life, it is remains just a single seed … It might survive a while – but it never produces fruit.  If we refuse to die to self, we might survive, but we aren’t rally alive in the Spirit.  Resurrection is always hidden within death.  However, without death there can be no resurrection.

Lent is a good time to practices “little deaths” to self: giving up a self-serving idea, in good spirit changing an opinion, letting go of an ambition,  so that God might coax us (like the seedling) to follow the light in order stand erect and put down roots in the spirit of Benedict deep into  community life.

And when it is our time, when the water of God’s grace and the light of God’s love can penetrate our thick shells we will know, and be enabled to divest ourselves in favor of new life.  May we graciously lay down whatever the habit we have developed, or the challenge we’ve been stepping around for so long.  (In the image of the plant), allow those things to become fertilizer for the next seedlings God plants in our hearts.

Francis of Assisi knew all this well when he wrote in his famous Prayer for Peace; “It is in giving that we receive; it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading  Jeremiah 31:31-34           Second Reading  Hebrews 5:7-9
Gospel  John 12:20-33
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Patches of Dirt or Fertile Soil

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First Reading  Wisdom 12:13,16-19                    Second Reading  Romans 8:26-27

Gospel (short form)  Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus’ parables aren’t meant to test our human intelligence.  They are moments of grace to ply open our heart’s willingness to surrender to, and be enveloped in, the always surprising generosity of God.

Here on our property, when we look out the window and behold the life cycle of the hay field or blueberry patch, we see first-hand in nature what Jesus is talking about.  He extends the lesson applying it to the human heart.  He reminds us here that there are folks whose hearts are like cement.  It does not matter how much or how often seed is poured on these souls.  Fertilize it, water it – nothing will cause those seeds to take root and sprout.  Listen to church and TV sermons 24/7, they remain unfazed.

Do you remember times you were like this …  not always … but a time or two when you just didn’t want to hear what God might have to say?

In contrast to the hardened-soil person, the shallow-soil person is hyper-responsive to God’s word—but only for a wee tiny time.  Like during a revival or summer retreat.  Don’t be one of these temporary ‘all in’ folks gobbling up every word and reading every book suggested by the retreat director.  But, sometimes the seed eventually sinks in and bursts through the pavement.  And right away, birds or insects snatch the new growth and it never comes to fruition.  It can’t survive the heat of the give and take of daily community life.

When were you like this?  Maybe in the novitiate … or the time in high school when the class made the senior retreat?  God was SO real to you … but God’s voice grew more faint as the days went by?

Then, there is a third type of soil – a thorny type – so tightly entangled with “thorns” that their thorns have become their identity.  Jesus calls these thorns “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.” Matthew says these people are caught up in anxiety and get choked on the lure of the riches of the world that tug and yank at their minds and hearts until the seed suffocates, rendering them spiritually barren.

When was this the case in your life?  Times when you were just too distracted to cultivate God’s word …  when several days went by without a space for Lectio or healthy self-care – when “thorny” remarks and obstinate behavior was your default mode?  That’s when God planted a general sense of dissatisfaction in the garden of your soul.

Oh, but how gratifying it must be to Jesus when He finds “good soil people” – when we share the time God has given us to meditate on the Word, let it penetrate and bear fruit – then we hold fast to the word making it our own.  Thus we grow more Christ-like over time by absorbing and practicing the precepts of Benedict.  Over the years, as the seeds continue to take root and blossom, the fruits and gifts of the Spirit flourish.  As one author describes Benedictine life: they fall down, and they get up … and fall down and they get up … as they ascend the ladder of humility.

We come not only to know, but to believe deep in our hearts that God can change hard, shallow, compromised patches of dirt into fertile garden soil.  As we read in Ezekiel: “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you.  And I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

Many of us have, or have had, gardens.  And all of us–whether we’re gardeners with a green thumb, or thumbs with only a tinge of green, or only a “wishful” thumb – or a thumb that only knows how to operate a TV remote or a computer mouse — all of us know the principle of planting: when we put a seed in the ground, we expect a plant to appear …  some may even think it will sprout with a flower already on it J . We also know that not all seeds will produce full-grown plants. They just don’t, for a variety of reason.

We don’t have to ever have plowed fields for forty cents a day in order to know the different landscapes of which Jesus speaks. We know the beaten path of our own lives.   We’ve stumbled through the rocky patches of life.  We have been scratched and cut by the thorns of life.  But we have planted our roots deep in the sacred soil of life that feeds and grows us to become a harvest – whether it’s a thirty, sixty or a hundredfold – who’s counting?! – it’s all a harvest!  Given the right conditions apple seeds do become apples.  Mango seeds become mangoes.  God’s seeds become what we allow them to become.

Paraphrasing the words from Deuteronomy, we ask: “let the soil of my heart hear the words of Your mouth.  May Your instruction soak in like the rain and Your word permeate like the dew; like a gentle rain upon the grass and like a shower upon the crops.”

~Reflection by Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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