Wheat, mustard seeds and yeast

Life is filled with challenges.  Some of them can seem overbearing at times, but for people of faith, there is always hope.  Faith helps us to face each day, to find a reason to look forward, to face even the struggles with the knowledge that we're not alone.  Hope can be as faint as a flicker of light, and yet it has the power to see us through.

Listen to this week's offering or just read on:

Weeds among the wheat

Once a month (or so) this parish community welcomes new children into our midst.  Their parents come from all walks of life, yet they seek one thing in common: that their children be given the opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of baptism.  The reasons for which these children arrive here are as varied as are the histories their families bear, and yet ours is not to question the wisdom of God, nor the plan He has for each one of us.  Ours is the task of celebrating with these families, and doing what we can to help them grow in their faith.

When children are born, there is usually great excitement.  Assuming that all the material needs associated with taking care of such new arrivals can be attended to, there are still some questions that might plague the heart:  What will life bring for them?  Will they know love?  Will they find happiness?  Will they have opportunity to develop a set of morals and criteria to help them make wise decisions in life?  The answers to these questions will only be known with time, but the process of giving these children the necessary tools which will allow them to discover these answers begins right now, at the moment when they are youngest, and most vulnerable.

The sources of such wisdom are all around us, if we have the eyes to recognize them.  The trick is to identify them and to find opportunities to benefit from them: opportunities to listen for the words of guidance that will be offered, opportunities to practice the lessons they will teach.  Such opportunities may only come along once in life, and if they are ignored, much more the pity.

Fortunately, no matter what our ages, it’s never too late to start recognizing this wisdom, and to learn from it.  For those fortunate enough to still be too young to speak, hopefully they will be surrounded with others who have recognized the value of imparting life’s most valuable lessons.  This is the only way that they will themselves grow to know the difference between the wheat and the weeds that grow in the field that Jesus speaks of in today’s gospel.

There will always be temptation in the world, and opportunities to ignore the plight of others, but even the most tortured hearts still have the ability to learn love.  In fact, once they find it and trust it, they will soak it up.  Who better to teach us about love than the one who is love?  Who better than he to fill his children with good hope, because he gives repentance for sins?

We should fervently pray then for the children who will be baptised this weekend, and for their families.  In fact, we should pray that each of us will grow ever deeper in our appreciation for the virtue of hope made known to us in the person of Jesus, for having known this hope in our own lives, we in turn can welcome the newcomers among us with great joy on the day of their baptism.  We can also willingly help their parents and godparents to train them in the practice of the faith … to teach them to keep God’s commandments … by loving God and our neighbour.

Ours is not the task to answer why the weeds of challenge and adversity are permitted to grow alongside the good wheat, nor to all become botanists and be able to answer the scientific ponderings about how seeds become mature plants.  It’s enough to recognize that God is the sower, that He is the one who feeds us, that He is the one who brings about the growth.