#parables – Tattoos, Motorcycles, Beer, Bourbon and Faith

The Parable of the Sower

I have been reading the gospels that discuss the parable of the sower in Matthew, Mark and Luke. There is a lot packed into this parable. It says a lot about each of us as we can choose our own type of ground. Will we be rocky or shallow ground, will we be choked by weeds, or will we be rich and fertile soil? We decide how open we are going to be to God, and we choose if we are going to follow Jesus. This parable addresses everyone regardless of where they are in their faith journey and their relationship with God.

But rather than thinking about this parable from the perspective of the ground and the seed, I have begun to look at it from the perspective of the sower. The sower is not selective. He freely sowed his seeds, planting them in all places; on rocky paths, in shallow soil, amongst, the weeds, and on fertile ground. He didn’t pick and choose where he would place the seed. He was indiscriminate and he was generous. Think about that for a minute. Indiscriminate and generous, kind of like Jesus.

How indiscriminate are we in sharing kindness? How generous are we in showing love to one another? Or do we only show kindness to those who are kind to us? Are we compassionate to the strangers that we meet, particularly those who are in need? Or do we silently judge them and sneer at their current situation? Are we patient in situations that call for patience (traffic, the checkout line, dealing with family)? Or do we rush through everything in life, filled with self-importance and never having enough time? Do we love with the love of Christ, loving others regardless of who they are? Or do we only love those who are easy to love? We are called to be like Jesus, but are we?

My herb garden – one of my favorite things about summer

There are numerous opportunities throughout the day to share the love of God with others. These are opportunities for us, as common everyday people, to evangelize, to be Christ to others. But we all too often miss those opportunities. We are so busy looking inward that we miss what is around us. We miss the opportunity to show kindness to be compassion, to be examples of Christ’s love in a broken world.

We are both the soil and the sower. Maybe today, we can be better sowers and spread the seeds of love and kindness everywhere, indiscriminate about where and with whom we share these gifts. And today, please pray for me, and I will continue to pray for you.

Brave and Crazy

I have been reading the Gospel according to Mark this past week. If you read Mark with no background information about Jesus, or even if you do know that background, you might actually think that Jesus is out of his mind. I mean, let’s be honest, Jesus can come across as a little crazy, right? I am sure the people who witnessed the actions of Jesus and the events of the day might have thought that Jesus was crazy.

He is a man who is performing amazing miracles. He is healing the lame, he is driving out demons, he is challenging Pharisees, he is rebelling against the traditional view of the Sabbath, he is talking in parables, he is bringing the dead back to life, he is feeding the masses. And he is being challenged by others about all of these things, yet he never backs down. Jesus was faithful to God the Father in everything that he did. Everything. I imagine that he would appear to be crazy to the people of that day.

I know today, with everything that is going on in the world and even or maybe especially, within the Catholic Church, there are many people who think that devout Catholics are (brave and) crazy. For those of you who think that’s true, let me just tell you we’re not crazy. (Maybe we’re brave for standing up for our faith.) What we really are is faithful. There is a big difference.

You cannot judge the whole by the actions of a few. Although in today’s society, many people do just that. (And I am in no way condoning or justifying anything that has happened, been covered up, etc. by the Catholic Church, I am just as disgusted by it as anyone). But evil exists and it can take many forms. And while we, as Christians, don’t always understand why these things happen or where these things are going; we have faith and believe that God will bring something good out of everything, even when it looks like chaos. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”- Romans 2:28. Even when we don’t understand. But we remain faithful. We continue to pray. And we know that God has a greater plan and that God is in control.

Today say a prayer for one another and have faith, God will bring something amazing out of the chaos. And today, please pray for me and I will continue to pray for you.

Weeds

I have discovered I really like the parable about the weeds in the field (Matthew 13:24-43). This passage actually began a couple weekends ago with Matthew 13:24-30. It was the reading from the daily Saturday mass. It really struck me then but upon reading the continuation which was the Gospel for mass on July 30^th with Matthew 13:36-43 caused me to go back and read the entire passage. You see, there were six verses that were skipped over, which contain the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast.

Let me just make a few things crystal clear in case you weren’t already aware. If you had told me when I was forty that I would one day attend daily mass (and actually want to do it), I would say you were definitely drunk. I never thought that I would want to attend daily mass nor miss it on the days that I am unable to go. If you had told me that, at some point in my life, I would actually read the bible, I mean just read the bible, I would have thought you to be insane. And then if you had indicated that I would actually find meaning in it, I would have suggested that perhaps you needed to be institutionalized. That was just not who I was (or at least I didn’t think that was who I was or I didn’t know that was who I was). But it’s funny how people can be changed when they simply open themselves up to that mere possibility. So rereading the passages from Matthew speak volumes for me personally.

Let’s talk about the weeds in the field with the wheat. Let’s just say I had, and still have, a lot of weeds in my life. My life is overcome by weeds, the weeds of worry, the weeds of anxiety, the weeds of shame, the weeds of fear, the weeds of dis-trust, the weeds of anger, the weeds of all things negative. But those weeds grow among a lot of good things as well, like friendship, love, concern, empathy, faith, kindness, compassion, hope, understanding, and the fruits of all things beneficial and beautiful. In tearing out the weeds all at one time, we also can remove the things that are bearing fruit. We need to carefully remove those weeds. Those weeds in our lives can also be ways in which we learn and practice things like kindness, compassion, empathy, etc. Eventually, those good things, those practices, help to actually “weed out” the weeds – all those negative things. As we grow in these areas, the negative areas seem to diminish naturally.

Then Jesus talks about the parables of the mustard seed and the yeast. These parables just remind me that we just need to sow small seeds of faith, hope, and love in order to yield big returns. Trust me when I say that my faith began very small, from next to nothing at all. As it has evolved and grown and deepened in the past 4 years, it reminds me that God can take absolutely nothing and make something out of it if we are willing to open ourselves to Him. If we are receptive to Him and are willing to sow those seeds with and for others, there are big changes in store. It is amazing how far a kind gesture can go in impacting someone else’s life. Those are the small seeds or the measure of yeast that we need to share with others, because there is enough to go around. And when we share it, it multiplies exponentially.

But there is always something tempting us to sow bad seed, those seeds are the seeds of doubt, fear, uncertainty, anger, disappointment, frustration, greed, avarice, conceit, and the list goes on. They will always be there to tempt us, to try to draw our attention away from God. That is why nurturing our faith, investing in our prayer life and working on our relationship with God is so important. When our relationship is strong, it is easier to resist those temptations. It is easier to remember that God loves us and that Christ is always with us, even in the midst of our struggles and failures, even when things seem their bleakest. If we remember this and keep God at the center of our lives, then no matter how bad the weeds might seem, they will never be able to choke out the wheat. So today, I encourage you to continue to sow the seeds of kindness – faith, hope and love – and please pray for me as I continue to pray for you.