THE LAW OF THE HARVEST

 

“ God will not hear our prayers unless we acknowledge ourselves to be sinners. We do this when we ponder on our own sins alone, and not on those of our neighbor. “ - St. Moses the Ethiopian

First Reading: Ezekiel 17: 22 – 24

Thus says the Lord GOD: "I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain;

on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.

And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it."

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 6 - 10

So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

Gospel: Mark 4: 26 – 34

And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how. The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?

It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

Reflection

By: Gharri Tulabut

Have you ever been in a situation when you were so helpless you cannot defend your beliefs against detractors from other faiths? I did. And it was very frustrating!

We can cite many reasons why we Catholics lack deep understanding of our faith. I used to blame the clergy for not exerting extra time to really engage us in study of the Bible. A twenty-minute homily per week seemed to be enough for them and leave everything up to catechists and religion teachers. Oh, how I used to envy born-again Christians who have their regular Bible studies and Sunday school. Some blame their parents for not bringing them to Church early in their lives. Some even blame the Bible itself for being not so straight forward and open to many different interpretations.

But because of the many frustrations I had in not being able to defend my faith, I started to search. I read many devotional and apologist books, joined fellowship groups and Bible studies, subscribed to Catholic magazine, attended seminars, conventions, and conferences, and optimized the use of internet to improve my knowledge of our faith. Most of all, I stopped blaming others but myself. And that was the for me to make efforts to improve my knowledge about our faith, little by little each time.

Now, though I am still very far from being an apologist or expert, there are times that I am surprised when I am able to explain certain things about our faith to my nephews and nieces and even to some of my friends. I know that with the desire to improve, God will intervene and help us increase our wisdom. As mentioned in Wis 6:12, “by those who love wisdom, it is readily seen, by those who seek wisdom, it is readily found.”

I think this is also true in other aspects of life, may it be our finances, our profession or our relationships. We cannot change things over night. But with the little consistent efforts we can accomplish our goals. Some call this the law of the harvest. Whatever you plant no matter how small, you will have harvest in the future.  Even our faith, though as small as a mustard seed, may become the largest of trees.

Prayer

Thank you Holy Spirit for the gift of wisdom! May we continue to improve our understanding of our faith so that we may be able to spread the branches of Good News to the world, Amen!