Some gardening tips

‘But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.’  (Matt 13:23)

 (Year A: The Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 12^th July, 2020)

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READINGS (COI & paired as between the Gospel and the Old Testament readings)

Isaiah 55:10-13

Psalm 65

Romans 8:1-11

Matthew 13:1-23

(See also Mark 4 and Luke 8).

During the recent restrictions on social contact and movement I took to a little bit of gardening on my apartment balcony. Having sowed some lettuce seeds in March I waited patiently for the first signs of little green sprouts. These tiny little specs of green appearing in my sowing tray grew into what looked like thick leaves of grass until they were ready for transplanting to a small plastic basin tub. Carefully harvested ‘top soil’ sourced in a nearby plot by permission of a neighbour fortified by seaweed of which there is copious amounts within 200 metres of where I live served as a bed for the new plants which are now showing some promise. A lot of work for such limited results?! 

The pleasure of ‘making’ something grow from tiny seeds is its own reward. But I was only a partner in the process. Someone worked to harvest, process and produce the seeds in a commodified bag of tiny seeds. Nature played it role in providing the raw materials in which the seed could flourish while a combination of lockdown sunshine and buckets of Irish rain provided the conditions in which the lettuce grew. Yet, many seedlings did not make it; don’t ask me why. I would say that about half of the sowings in a 24 potted tray showed any results before transplanting.

Nature has assumed a greater role in public awareness and discourse. Added to concerns about climate change and environmental degradation we are more aware than ever of the intricate linkages between nature and ourselves who are, in any case, part of a nature system.

In the parable or story of the sower, Jesus is using images and examples from everyday life which his audience was more than familiar with. In so many ways the technique of sowing and growing food and plants has not changed in 2,000 years even if, today, producers add tonnes of pesticides and other agents in the chain from field to plate.

The stretch of countryside that still hangs on in between estate-building in North County Dublin has been known for its market gardening. Here and there you can find garden allotments where those with the time and patience do a better job than me in growing their own food!

What the small experience of growing lettuce on my balcony has reminded of is that all good things take time. The harvest belongs to God who makes all things possible. Our role is to sow seeds, to nurture and watch over and be there for others. Essentially, it is the work of God mirrored in nature and in the life all around us that achieves the result. It is a mystery and nothing can be forced.

Sowing, planting, minding, pruning, replanting, waiting and letting grow are part of a natural life-rhythm. Our lives follow a seasonal pattern and we part of a living, growing and decaying and re-birthing universe. Nothing stands still. A mystery lies at the heart of all life. We are wise to go with the grain of nature and respect the delicate balance of life.

Beneath the image of sowing is the idea of growth and change which is not under our control. Not everything sown will sprout or grow. Some will. Then, some will shoot up for a while and quickly fade again. Jesus could read into these natural processes the wisdom of living. He saw patterns in the way people live and develop and relate to others. He probably encountered zealous young men who devoted themselves to prayer, fasting and study of the Torah but, who did not last the course. They had no roots.  Others embraced a life of devotion and scholarship only to become weighed down by concerns and addictions to power and control over others. They never really flourished. Then, others gave themselves where they were planted and bore much fruit as husbands, wives, leaders, servants or prophets like his daring cousin, John (the Baptist).

We could read the Parable of the Sower in many ways. Here are four suggested different types of people:

1. Those who don’t listen or will not take in the Word of God (the ‘incurable sceptics’).
2. Those who go with it – possibly even enthusiastically – but then fall away (the ‘happy-clappy zealots’).
3. Those who go with it and might even make a lifelong commitment but due to the circumstances of life and the pleasures and worries of life succumb to alternative paths (the ‘burnt out’).
4. Those who embrace the Word and let it grow and grow and from which they flourish and flourish. (many around us).

We might identify ourselves in each of these four soils in different parts of our lives or in different phases of life. For example, one might have entered upon the religious life in young adulthood but was not given the gift of perseverance as the saying goes. Then, one might re-discover a calling to serve in some way that reignites a seed sown much earlier. Then again, one might follow the painful path of a broken relationship after many, many years of thorns that choked a loving relationship. However, God works in mysterious ways and is generous in the sowing of new seeds and possibilities. Rather than seeing each of the four soils as a series of ‘single last chance saloons’ we may be looking at the generosity of God who always has new seeds to scatter along our way no matter what came before or how old we are. We might even be surprised by new plants and flourishing like those hardy geraniums facing the occasional easterly gale from the Irish sea on my apartment balcony (they came back to life mysteriously after a barren time over winter).

From among the worries, cares, hardness and back-sliding the story urges us to be like the fourth soil – the fertile soil – open, ready, receptive and active. But there is even another take on this. Perhaps we feel that we are planted in a very stony place at this time and in this place? And we feel trapped there. The story of the sower urges us to think again. We may be called to thrust down deep roots where we are. And miracles can happen in the ordinary.

And in speaking of sowing we know from the parables of Jesus that bad seeds yielding bad results in the form of weeds and thorns can also find their way into our hearts and minds (Matthew 13:24-30). We must be vigilant. The best response to bad seeds is good seeds and the cultivation of good seeds in the soils of our innermost hearts.

To flourish as children of God we need to be:

• Disposed, open and attentive to life (the fertile soil)
• Ready to receive the watering and sunshine of prayerfulness, sacramental life and communion with others in the living out of faith.
• Always ready to start again and be open to God’s never-failing generosity
• Flourish where we are planted!

My friend, don’t be surprised if new and good seeds are sown where you are.