Mk 4:1-20 Our World

Mk 4:1-20 Our World

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I have always had an attraction to science. I guess that is one reason why I became a scientist, an engineer. I have always had questions that were not so conventional such as, Is our planet really a planet? I mean, it is so different from all the other planets in our solar system and unfortunately we love to reduce things to a common denominator rather than what is different, and the earth is very different indeed.

So what is our world? I mean how do you see our world? What words would best describe the earth? What is the earth most like? I think it is like an enormous garden; a garden where living beings are nurtured and brought up. This is our world. This is the world that the Lord has created – young, fresh, vibrant and growing. It is a garden in which beautiful people along with beautiful flowers are raised and then, at the right moment, are plucked and taken to decorate the Master’s mansion.

Christ reminds us, in the parable of the sower, that He, the Lord, has thrown the seed. Did we not all begin as seeds – tiny living beings? Did we not begin to grow when we were planted in our mother’s womb? How beautiful is the Lord’s garden! And yet, there are numerous dangers to these tiny seeds, even from its mother’s womb.

Sins are the many storms and tornados that have caused so much pain and suffering to fall upon our tiny garden. The devil has come to suffocate the Father’s love for us. As time goes by and upon reflection we see this grotesque giant’s footprints throughout history and how he has crushed cultures and nations with bigotry, racism, war and holocausts. Our neighbor too is constantly seeking a better place to grow, striping the goods from a variety of underdeveloped nations in order to feed itself with more and more. This is true on the individual level as much as it is true on the international one.

And yet, there are seeds that fall on good soil: healthy, fertile, and untouched. Yes, there are families that are constantly open to new life; open to love and forgiveness; open to mercy and compassion. Open to the Creator. These are the beautiful plants that grow into Saints, even from the unlikeliest of places - from the ashes of once beautiful forests. It seems as though only the strongest survive. That is, only the one’s whose self-confidence depends not so much on what others think but rather on what God thinks. These are the flowers that continue to grow strong because they do what is right, rather than what is convenient, sufficient or efficient.

Let us ask the Lord God to rain down his graces upon us so that we may grow and become his sons and daughters, grafted of the one born of a Virgin, conceived as true man.

Lord, it appears as though all things grow up – towards you. Help us to touch the Heavens and reach the home you prepared for us from the beginning of time. We ask this in Christ’s name. Amen.