Saturday of Week 24 in Ordinary Time (Year II)
1 Corinthians 15:35-37,42-49 | Psalm 55:10-14 | Luke 8:4-15
Both the reading and Gospel for today remind us that receiving the Word of God, through childhood catechism and weekly mass, is just the beginning. If our faith life stops there, then we truly are seed scattered on infertile ground, unable to sprout and transform ourselves into the beacons of love and light for others that we are called to be.
But I suspect some take away an erroneous message from the Gospel in particular, that the metaphorical ground on which they were sown, the secular environment in which they live their lives, is predestined. “After all, God chose to drop me among the rabid wolves at my office, so can you blame me for drifting away from the Church?”
This is, of course, not mandatory. We have been give free will by our Creator to shape our lives as we see fit. We can choose to dive head-first into the seething cauldron of office politics, to stab others in both front and back, to curry favour with the boss while getting the bare minimum done.
Or we can choose not to play power games at our workplaces, to focus on helping everyone (including ourselves) Get Things Done, while also perhaps looking for another job that doesn’t demand so much Machiavellian maneuvering.
We are not doomed by the sower’s hand to live sordid lives. We are seed with the power to move ourselves to rich soil…but we have to first want to be closer to God. Without that urge, we are but seed cast into a typhoon, destined to drift into darkness.
Lord, grant us:
the serenity to accept the things that You have predestined for us,
the courage to change the circumstances we can,
the wisdom to understand the difference and, above all,
the driving desire to draw closer to You.
Amen.