Isaiah
55:10-11
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
I‘m a big
fan of the best-selling book called The Shack and recommend it to people who
suffer a great loss in their lives. Perhaps you’ve read it.
The
story is a beautiful parable about faith, loss, great pain, and eventually healing
and forgiveness through the guidance of the Holy Trinity. It’s been called a modern retelling of the
Book of Job.
The story
centers on a father whose young daughter is kidnapped and brutally murdered by
a serial killer while on a family vacation in the Wallowa Lake area of eastern
Oregon.
“The
last trace of his daughter, a blood-stained dress, is found on the floor of a
dilapidated shack set deep in the woods.
In the wake of the murder, a crushing depression settles on (the
protagonist) and he (begins) to question his belief in God. As the novel opens, (the man) receives a
mysterious invitation to come to the shack.”
The man thinks the letter is penned by the killer, but it turns out the
letter is sent by God.
Noted
theologian Father Robert Barron also recommends the book for any Catholic who
has suffered a great loss in their lives in spite of some reservations about
its Protestant take on faith.
He said
reading The Shack is kind of like eating a sweet, tasty watermelon. “You got to spit out a few seeds!”
I’ve
posted Fr. Barron’s thoughtful comments and recommendation on my blog.
For the
purposes of this homily, I’d like to borrow The Shack author’s metaphor of the
human soul as being like a beautiful garden when tended properly.
In our
lifetimes, many thorns develop in the gardens of our souls and need constant
care and tending to create a thing of beauty in the eyes of God.
Some of
us may think we are immune to these thorns cropping up in the gardens of our
souls. But we are not. None of us. Not even this deacon. And I think that’s what Jesus is telling us
this weekend. We need to keep our
gardens tilled with rich, fertile soil for the word of God to continue to take
root in our hearts and souls.
One
thing we Catholics have to help us clean out our overgrown garden is the
Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is
where we can examine closely each and every thorn bush that’s growing in our hearts
and through the healing power of our savior’s love start the process of
removing these thorns and tilling the soil so good seed can grow abundantly.
I have a
question for us all today.
Is our
soil rich and fertile creating conditions required for the Word of God to be
nurtured and come to fruition as a Disciples of Christ?
How
about the soil of our children? As
Catholic adults, are we helping them to keep their soil rich and fertile so as
to keep their faith fully alive and thriving?
As some
of you know, I have a new job. On the
very day Fr. Hersey returned from Guest House in Minnesota, I was asked to
become the Campus Minister at Archbishop Murphy High School. After much prayer and discernment, I accepted the job a few
weeks later.
It’s
been an eye-opening experience to see faith through the eyes of our teenagers.
You see,
our teens pay close attention to what we say and do and are quick to point out
any hypocrisy. Especially hypocrisy to
the teachings of Christ. As parents of
teens, we know how this story goes.
Right
now, our parish community is cultivating a renewal of our youth ministry. It’s trying to create a new garden with rich,
fertile soil so the Word of God can grow in the hearts of our young people.
This is
so important and so vital, because so many young Catholics today walk away from
faith because we fail to help them clean out their thorny gardens.
We talk
about the lessons of Jesus, but we sometimes fail to live up to Jesus’
example. We fail to tend to our own
thorny gardens and don’t see that our own hypocrisy is one of the main reasons
our young people leave the faith.
Our
judgments of others without showing mercy and understanding, our unkind and unloving
words about our enemies, our intolerance of those we disagree with, our failure
to help the least of our brothers and sisters in need, our focus on material
wealth and all its trappings, all these things are enabling young people to
question what this Jesus thing is all about -- what this Church is all about.
That’s
why Pope Francis could not have come at a better time in our troubled world. The Pope prefers to teach not only by his
words, but more importantly by his actions.
Ask any
effective parish youth minister and you will hear the same thing, “kids are
paying attention to everything Pope Francis is saying and doing.”
His
appearance at last summer’s World Youth Day in Rio captivated three-point-seven
million of our Catholic young people as he called them to “make a mess” with their
love of the Gospel.
The Pope
told them to make “a mess in the dioceses! I want people to go out! I want the
Church to go out to the street!
I want
us to defend ourselves against everything that is worldliness… that is
comfortableness, that is clericalism, that is being shut-in on ourselves. The parishes, the schools, the institutions,
exist to go out!
He also told them, “Jesus, with His Cross,
walks with us and takes upon Himself our fears, our problems, and our
sufferings, even those which are deepest and most painful.
With the Cross, Jesus unites Himself to the
silence of the victims of violence, those who can no longer cry out, especially
the innocent and the defenseless.”
The Pope also did something remarkable this past
week. He said to victims of sexual child
abuse gathered at the Vatican:
“I beg your forgiveness.”
He told them, “The scene where Peter sees
Jesus emerge after a terrible interrogation… Peter whose eyes meet the
gaze of Jesus and weeps… This scene comes to my mind as I look at you,
and think of so many men and women, boys and girls. I feel the gaze of
Jesus and I ask for the grace to weep, the grace for the Church to weep and
make reparation for her sons and daughters who betrayed their mission, who abused
innocent persons.”
Some
may say, “Well, Pope Benedict did the same thing.”
Yes, he did apologize to sex abuse victims on
behalf of the Church, but what ‘s remarkable about Pope Francis’ actions is the
Pontiff publicly pledged himself to accountability, and not just accountability
for clergy who abuse, but for bishops who cover it up.
Powerful
words on the most important crisis in our Church’s history -- what some might
call the biggest thorn bush to spring up in our collective souls as Catholics.
This is
why when I arrived at the campus ministry office at Murphy and noticed not a
single image of Pope Francis on its walls, I immediately had numerous framed
pictures made of some of the Holy Father’s most impactful teaching by example
moments and put them up for all the students to see.
At
Archbishop Murphy, with the help of the students, we recently erected a Marian
Grotto. Around the Grotto and lovely
statue of the Virgin Mary is a beautiful flower garden. One of my favorite things to do daily is tend
the garden, water its flowers and make sure it looks beautiful. I suppose in a few months I’ll be tending to
the weeds and thorns that may try to take root in the now rich, fertile soil. And so it goes…
The
lesson learned for us all can be found in a quote attributed by some to
Francis’ namesake, St. Francis of Assisi:
“Preach
the Gospel always. And if necessary use
words.”
This is
how we make rich, fertile soil in our souls and the souls of our children. When there is harmony between our words and
our actions and when we let our actions speak louder than our words, we create
soil rich, fertile for the Word of God to take root.
If we
teach the lessons of Christ, but fail to live them in our own lives, we allow
thorns to grow not only in our own gardens, but the gardens of our children.
“Whoever has ears ought to hear."
At
Archbishop Murphy, with the help of the students, we recently erected a Marian
Grotto. Around the Grotto and lovely
statue of the Virgin Mary is a beautiful flower garden. One of my favorite things to do daily is tend
the garden, water its flowers and make sure it looks beautiful. I suppose in a few months I’ll be tending to
the weeds and thorns that may try to take root in the now rich, fertile soil. And so it goes…
