[Salvation]

Zenit.org

Archbishop Follo: Hope: Trust in God’s Love

With the wish to understand that the hope is not grounded in our desire, but on the gift of the love of God.

June 15, 2018 16:59Francesco FolloSunday Readings

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B – June 17, 2018

Roman Rite
Ez 17.22 to 24; Ps 92; 2 Cor 5.6 to 10; Mk 4: 26-34

Ambrosian Rite
Third Sunday after Pentecost
Gen 2, 18-25; Ps 8; Eph 5.21 to 33; MK 10, 1-12

1) Man sows with faith, God makes grow with love.

The Gospel of this Sunday (Mk 4: 26-35) offers two brief parables, one of the seeds that grows by itself and the one of the mustard seed. The sowing of the smallest grain produces the biggest event: the Kingdom of heaven. Using images taken from the life in the fields, Jesus presents the kingdom of God[1] and indicates the reasons for our commitment full of hope.

In the first parable, Jesus shows the miracle of growth, describing the dynamics of sowing. The seed is sown in the earth, then, whether the farmer sleeps or vigils, it sprouts and grows by itself.

Man does nothing but sowing and waiting. We are in front of the mystery of creation, God’s action in history which we must contemplate in amazement. He is the Lord of the Kingdom, man is a humble collaborator contemplating and rejoicing of God’s creative doing and waiting for the harvest eager to participate in it.

In this regard, St. Gregory the Great says “The man throws the seed when he conceives in the heart a good intention. The seed sprouts and grows but he is not aware of that because, until it’s time to harvest, the good deeds continue to grow. The earth bears fruit by itself because through prevenient grace, the human mind naturally goes toward the fruit of good deeds. The earth does it in stages: grass, ear, wheat. To produce grass means to have the weakness of the beginning of good. The grass does the care when virtue progresses into good. Wheat fills the ear when virtue reaches the strength and the perfection of the good deed. When the fruit is ripe, comes the sickle because it’s time to harvest. In fact, God Almighty, when the fruit is ripe, sends the sickle and reaps the harvest because when He has led each of us to the perfection of the work, he truncates our temporal life to take his grain in the granaries of heaven “(In Exodus , II, 3, 5 and following)

In the second parable, Jesus speaks again of sowing. However, he refers to a specific seed, the mustard seed, considered the smallest of all seeds (1.6 mm according to the experts). Though so small, it has an unthinkable dynamism and power of life. So is the Kingdom of God, something really small humanly speaking and made up of people usually simple, poor, not important to the eyes of the world. Nevertheless, the power of Christ breaks through them and transforms what is minor and seemingly insignificant. The mustard seed becomes a high and robust shrub, able to give shelter in its branches to the birds. The Kingdom of God, from a human point of view, is like a tiny scorned for its appearance, but that contains within itself the mystery of a prodigious divine force that for us is unimaginable.

Saint Ambrose, commenting on this parable, wrote “Let’s see why the sublime kingdom of heaven is likened to a mustard seed. I remember reading, in another passage, about the mustard seed that the Lord compares to faith with these words “If you have a faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain” Move from here to there” (Mt 17, 20). It is not a mediocre faith, but a great faith the one that is able to command a mountain to move. In fact, it is not a mediocre faith the one that the Lord demands from the apostles, knowing that they must fight the greatness and the exaltation of the spirit of evil. So, if the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed and faith too is like a mustard seed, faith is certainly the Kingdom of heaven, and the Kingdom of heaven is faith. “(Exp. in Lk., 7, 176-180; 182-186).

The first lesson to be learned from this passage of the Gospel is that we must look to the nature of the similarities, not to their appearance. In fact, despite the humble beginnings of the action of God in the person and work of Jesus as well as in the persons and works of Christians, thanks to the Christian sowing, humanity will grow in full justice, peace and freedom because of the love of providential God.

2) Hope and patience.

The second lesson that comes from the two parables is that even and especially in a society that is in a hurry and that calls “real time” a news that arrives within seconds, we must be active and wait patiently because the seed, freely given, can bear fruit only if it is welcomed and cared for.

We are confronted with God’s grace and our freedom. God’s grace and human freedom characterize all our personal history. On the one hand, we are called to live with amazement the growth of the small seed planted in the ground (first parable). On the other, we are taught that both patience and care are crucial for the earth to protect and feed the seed, and the sun to bring it to fruition.

The Gospel is a school that educates to the waiting. Jesus lived in the time and limit of a short life and of horizons that seem restricted, but He has waited for nothing less than the Kingdom of God in this world. For this reason, in the Gospel we can gather images of waiting by which to learn to live the “already and not yet”, the paradoxical waiting of the Christian life.

To wait is not easy, especially today. But the verb “to wait” has two meanings: to wait and to wait on. Let me explain it by referring to ordinary life where someone is asked to “wait on” for the most mundane and everyday jobs like feeding, watching over the lives of those entrusted to him or to her, setting the table, keeping the fire, being alert of looming dangers. A person waits to pay attention to the brothers entrusted to him or to her, not letting himself or herself being overcome by the fatigue and not seeking gratification, i.e. not thinking of oneself, before thinking of the needs of others.

To wait requires asceticism, an effort to not let go.

One waits in the vigilance of a light (prayer) and in the active life (charity) of those who are with their loins girded by the apron of service. Prayer and charity are the exercises that teach us to wait. Those who pray learn that the Lord neither speaks nor enters into dialogue immediately with the person praying. There is a silence to go through, but this silence educates to the waiting and gives resonance to the words. Those who love and serve know the difference between the services provided and the fruits and the awards because it is necessary to serve free of charge, like “useless servants”, honoring their task without any other concern. It is first of all to “do their part” and not to avoid the fatigue of the days when it seems an “unnecessary work” without immediate results.

The other meaning is to wait and this implies hope and patience.

Patience is “suffering the time” (Maria Zambrano) and the emptiness of a work that is not wholly and solely in our hands, the timing of which escapes our hustle and our need for control and reassurance. But, once done our part, we can rest in peace because there is a time that comes to us “spontaneously” and independently of us. As you cannot “force” the growth of the seed without risking damaging the plant, so you cannot force the growth of our brothers and sisters. We must learn to wait in the long run, to work without curtailing the time, without giving forced deadlines to growth.

It is in the school of the Gospel that we learn the true patience that keeps track of time. In this passing of time, the meaning comes from the future, and the fullness of time accounts for the time of waiting. If we look at it from our side, history begins at the beginning. If we look from God’s side the beginning starts from the end. In the “fullness of time” came the Son and humanity has realized that the time had come to its fullness because of his presence that led it to completion. He comes because he is long-awaited by the patient work of countless generations who have sown with faith in the hope to see that day. His coming is, however, a real surprise: the wait is dissolved in the joy of contemplating the abundance of the field of the kingdom of God, the shadow of a tree under which to find rest like birds escaped from danger.

Hope consists in putting ourselves in a filial and trusting way in the hands of God, who knows what we need (see Mt 6,8) and “gives to all with simplicity and without conditions” (James 1, 5). Like the Redeemer, who gave up his life in the hands of the Father (cfr. Lk 23:46), so the Christian is anchored in the Eternal, because hope is as a spiritual anchor, sure and steadfast, thrown in the afterlife into which for us Jesus has already entered ( see Heb 6.19 to 20).

However, it must be remembered that Christian hope is the hope of the fulfillment of this life, and not of another life where to escape to. It implies the acceptance of history as a place in which the presence of God is manifested. It doesn’t breed contempt but causes appreciation and gratitude while being aware of the limits. It is the inner strength of faith that makes men walk with God, seek His presence and commit themselves to work for the coming of the Kingdom: “Only when the future is certain as a positive reality, it becomes possible to live the present.[2]” Christian hope sees and loves what will be. It is the dynamic element of the moral life, which pursues in continued growth both the light of faith and the energy of love. Hope is the younger sister holding hands and guiding the older ones, faith, and charity, toward the goal[3]. While we are on the way, in the midst of trials and difficulties both individual and collective, hope generated by faith produces charity.[4]

3) The mustard seed of consecrated virgins in the world.

The Parable of the mustard seed shows that humility is the God’s method. This method was realized in the Incarnation in the cave of Bethlehem, in the simple home of Nazareth, and in the “earthly” life of Jesus. In today’s liturgy, this method of humility is taught to us through the parable of the mustard seed.

We need not fear the humility of small steps and must have trust that the (seemingly) small seed grows in us and then must be given to others. An example of how we can imitate this method of humility is the one offered by the life of the consecrated virgins in the world who show to us that “in giving life with simplicity one gets Life” (Pope Francis)

Consecrating themselves to Love, these women have placed their hope in something that is not from God, but God himself. In this regard, Saint Augustine teaches “May the Lord your God be your hope; do not expect anything from the Lord your God, but let the same Lord be your hope. Many hope from God something outside of Him but look for your God. Forgetting other things, remember Him; leaving everything behind, reach to Him. He will be your love “(Enarrationes in Psalmos, 39, 7-8).

The mustard seed is not only a likeness of Christian hope but provides evidence that great comes from small, not by exceptional ability but thanks to the Christian attitude of simple people who live of God’s love and patience that is the long breath of love.

[Salvation]

Archdiocese of Washington

If You Can Use Anything Lord, You Can Use Me - A Homily for the 11th Sunday of the Year

Msgr. Charles Pope • June 16, 2018 •

The readings for this Sunday speak of God’s providence, which is often displayed in humble, hidden, and mysterious ways. While it is true that God sometimes works in overpowering ways, His more common method seems to be using the humble and even unlikely things of the created order to accomplish His goals.

For us who are disciples, there are three related teachings given to us that speak of how God will make use of us and others. It is also good to link these teaching to Father’s Day, which occurs this weekend here in the U.S. These three teachings can be described as Adaptability, “Awe-Ability,” and Accountability.

ADAPTABILITY – In today’s first reading and in the Gospel, we hear how God can take something humble and adapt it to be something mighty and powerful.

The tender shoot of the first reading becomes a mighty oak: I [the Lord] will take from the crest of the cedar…a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. … It shall put forth branches and bear fruit and become a majestic cedar (Ezekiel 17:22-23).

The mustard seed of the first reading which becomes a great shade tree: The … kingdom of God … is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade (Mk 4:32-33).

Yes, God adapts us for His purposes and no one should say, “I cannot be used.” An old song says, “If you can use anything Lord, you can use me.” There’s a litany I’ve seen floating around the Internet that says,

The next time you think God can’t use you, remember

Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses was murderer had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt and was depressed
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too argumentative
Timothy had an ulcer
and Lazarus was dead!

No excuses, then, God chooses the weak and makes them strong

In fact, it is often our very weakness that is the open door for God. In our strength we are usually too proud to be of any use to Him. Moses was too strong at age forty when he pridefully murdered a man, thinking he was doing both the Jews and God a favor. Only forty years later, at the age of eighty, was Moses weak and humble enough to depend on God. Only then could God use him.

We are invited in this principle to consider that it is not merely in the “biggie-wow” things we do that God can work. It is also in the humble and imperfect things about us—the mustard seed of faith, the tiny shoots, the humble growth—that God can magnify His power.

So, God can adapt even the humblest, most ordinary, lowliest things and from them bring forth might and lasting fruit. Never despair of what is most humble about you, or that you are of little account on the world’s stage. It is precisely our humble state that God most often uses to bring forth His greatest and most lasting works.

“ AWE-ABILITY” – This is the capacity to reverence mystery and to have wonder and awe at what God does. In today’s Gospel, Jesus emphasizes that although a man plants seeds, he does not really know the deeper mysteries of life and growth:

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 (Mk 4:26-27).

Despite our often-self-congratulatory celebration of our scientific prowess and of how much we know, there is much more that we neither know nor understand. We do well to maintain a reverential awe of the deeper mysteries of God’s works and His ways. We are also rather poor at assessing the effectiveness of our methods. We may come away from a project considering it to have been very effective, and yet little comes of it in the long run. Conversely, sometimes what we consider to have been an ineffective effort may bear great fruit. God works in His own ways and we do well to remember that He can surprise us, reminding us that He is able and is in charge.

Some years ago, a friend of mine had on her desk a “God can.” It was a metal cookie tin with the following saying on its lid: He worketh in strange and mysterious ways, his wonders to perform. Into this box she would place slips of papers on which were written the challenges, struggles, and failures of her life. When she reached the limits of her strengths and abilities, she would say, “I can’t, but God can.” So, into this metal “God can” went the slips of paper, placed there in the hope that God would make a way out of no way. Quite often He did.

We do well to cultivate a sense of wonder and awe at who God is and how He works. Not only does this bring us joy, but it also opens us to hope. It reminds us that God can work in hidden ways to exult what is humble and to bring great transformation to those who are cast down and troubled. As we saw in the “adaptability” section of this post, it is often in the humblest things that God performs His mightiest works.

ACCOUNTABILITY – If it is true that we can’t, but God can; if it is true that God can use us mightily despite our humble state, our weakness, and even our sinfulness; then there can be no excuse for not bearing fruit in our life. Each of us is accountable to the Lord for how we let Him use us and work through us to further His Kingdom.

The second reading reminds that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil (2 Cor 5:9-10).

God is able to adapt and to work in wondrous and hidden ways to lift us up, even if we are humble and struggle. Given this capacity of God’s, we must one day render an account of how we have responded to God’s grace and His invitation to be used for His work.

On that day of judgment, the answer “I couldn’t” will ring hollow, because God can. Today’s readings remind us to be open to what God can do, often in mysterious ways, and even with the most humble things in our life.

Today is also Father’s Day, and so the following litany of resolution seems appropriate:

I DO solemnly resolve before God to take full responsibility for myself, my wife, and my children.

I WILL love them, protect them, serve them, and teach them the Word of God as the spiritual leader of my home.

I WILL be faithful to my wife, to love and honor her, and be willing to lay down my life for her as Jesus Christ did for me.

I WILL bless my children and teach them to love God with all of their hearts, all of their minds, and all of their strength.

I WILL train them to honor authority and live responsibly.

I WILL confront evil, pursue justice, and love mercy.

I WILL pray for others and treat them with kindness, respect, and compassion.

I WILL work diligently to provide for the needs of my family.

I WILL forgive those who have wronged me and reconcile with those I have wronged.

I WILL learn from my mistakes, repent of my sins, and walk with integrity as a man answerable to God.

I WILL seek to honor God, be faithful to His church, obey His Word, and do His will.

I WILL courageously work with the strength God provides to fulfill this resolution for the rest of my life and for His glory.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

This resolution comes from the 2011 movie Courageous, which I strongly recommend seeing.

All of us, men and women, will be held accountable, for even if we can’t, God can. Even if we feel too humble and insignificant, God does His greatest work with humble things and humble people. For us, it is simply to say that we have an adaptability that God can use. This should inspire in us an “awe-ability” that joyfully acknowledges God’s often secretive and hidden power. If that be the case, then, knowing our accountability, it simply remains for us to say, “If you can use anything, Lord, you can use me!”