The Seed

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I cannot make anyone believe. I often have this dilemma. I have discovered the greatest love in the universe, the greatest love that has ever existed and will exist, and it has completely changed my life! And I know, that if you let it, if you are open enough, if you will just let go of what you are clinging to, you will experience this same love and joy! But ultimately this choice belongs to you.

Saint Augustine once said, “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”

Do you believe this?... that the greatest romance you can ever have, is to fall in love with God?... that the greatest adventure you can experience, is not climbing Mount Everest or Macchu Picchu but it’s in seeking God? Do you believe that the greatest success of your entire life, the greatest achievement that any one person can have, is to find God?

But like I said, I cannot make you believe this.

The images that Jesus uses in today’s Gospel is one of a farmer or a gardener. Jesus says, “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 through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.”

If you have ever tried to plant something you know that at first you have to prepare the soil, remove all the weeds, take out all the stones, fertilize the soil, then place your seeds or flowers in, and then... you wait… You have done everything you can, but you can’t make the seed grow. You have made sure the soil is good and that it will have nutrients but you can’t guarantee that the seed will take. This is the same thing in the spiritual life; this is the same thing with our faith.

I have met many parents who mourn that their children no longer practice their faith. And often I can sympathize with them, because like them, I cannot make you believe or have faith. 

Does that mean I don’t have any responsibility when it comes to their faith? Not at all. What we can do is prepare the soil. We can create the proper environments (church, retreats, community, family dinners… without cellphones) and we can give the proper nutrients in the soil (prayer, catechesis, sacrificial love) but at the end of the day, it is only God’s grace that can make faith grow. And ultimately it is up to that person to either receive that seed of grace or reject it.

The same thing can be said of you and I. You have been given charge of the soil of your soul. Have you prepared your soul well? Or is it overgrown with weeds? Do we give our soul space so that the seed of grace can enter or is it so filled with so many other things that it's snuffed out and cannot grow? Do we nourish our soul with prayer and scripture daily? Or do we let it just dry up? 

God desires that you grow into a tall shrub, a tall tree, in which “the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” God desires that you become the kind of person that others can come to find and experience the peace of God in you. 

I think of Mother Teresa, who before she was Mother Teresa was just an unknown nun in a convent when God called her soul to go out and follow him. Who would have known that when she was open to this call, when she received that seed of grace, that it would turn into the Missionaries of Charity today? That all over the world, the poorest of the poor find the peace of God in these wonderful sisters.

I dare to say that Mother Teresa, was not special. She simply allowed that seed of faith in her heart to grow, and responded with generosity. You too, have that same seed in you. Inside you right now, is the same seed that transformed an unknown nun into St. Teresa of Calcutta. The question is, will you nurture and care for that seed you have been given? Will you allow the grace of God to allow it to sprout and grow?

If so, begin today. Begin by pulling out the weeds in your soul: Go to confession. Then till the soil and add nutrients: Read the scriptures and spiritual books. Then water the grounds: pray and meditate. And wait patiently on the Lord. If you do this “night and day,” every day, you will find that that mustard seed of grace will turn into a large tree. And you will find a life filled with joy and love that others long for.

“To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”