The Gospel (Mat 13: 1-23) for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time can be reflected upon in so many ways. There is always something new that a seeker can find in it, if it is the Will of the Sower.
We have a small space behind our house. Almost half of it was covered by these tall evergreen bushes that took up so much room. Finally, we convinced ourselves to have them cut. It really hurt. What was left behind looked like part of an abandoned lot, a wasteland, horrible. During this spring of confinement, my wife and I decided to come up with some sort of garden in this backyard. We tried to help the English ivy to come back and cover some of the space. We placed in the middle a bunch of little flowering plants from the grocery store. It was an improvement, but oh, what back-breaking work! There were few rocks there, but these stumps and thick roots made it almost impossible to plant anything new. And the weeds! Some were painfully thorny and hard to remove. The others would spring right back, and in three days they were once more choking the ivy and attacking the flowers. Boy, was it frustrating.
Time and again, this situation would remind me of Jesus’ parable of the sower. Farming, and even gardening, are about so much more than just planting. Making that soil receptive is such a challenge. Suddenly, this experience and this parable made me think about the “most important thing” we do as Christians, which is to pray. Our Lord is constantly inviting us to be with Him in prayer. When you believe in Him, His promptings, what St. Paul of the Cross calls “love darts,” fall upon the soil of our hearts like gentle dew, sacred “manna”, seeds that can germinate into the most wondrous moments of intimacy with the Word of God.
However, we have all these impediments: “No, no, I don’t have the time. Gotta do this, gotta do that!” And when we finally find the time, all these weeds and stones get in the way: body aches, itchiness, sleepiness, noisy lawn mowers, some young person blasting “ Raggeton” rap from his car parked out front, and so on. Then, when there is relative comfort and silence outside, there is the noise inside, what Fr. Ignacio Larrañaga calls “this mass of unruly thoughts” choking up our concentration on our God. Then, sometimes, there is that sense of guilt, that sense of unworthiness. It is so easy to just give up, stand up, and walk away from that moment of prayer that just a few moments before we were craving so much.
Fortunately, we must not forget Who is the One that longs the most for that encounter. He is the One that gently, somehow, clears our eyes and ears of faith so we can “see and hear.” The ruined, weed-covered yard turns into a fruitful garden, an image of that original Garden of intimacy with the Beloved. He helps us to remove the stumps, the weeds, the thorns, to turn the hard earth. He works with us to create that fruitful place, a soul that longs each day to be more and more like Him. Then we can begin to try, and carry out our Christian mission.
As my friend Matthew, who leads our virtual meetings, says : “Without prayer you can’t do anything.” Every once in a while I would like to share my favorite prayers with you, dear readers. These “prayers” are actually promptings, from the writings of very holy people who have helped me to clear out those weeds and be with God. Enjoy this challenging summer as best as you can, with the help of our God. I hope you appreciate and smell the flowers. Pray, pray, pray!
Orlando Hernández
The Victor's Place 