Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest

Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest

Lectionary: 321

“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 the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.

 In Jesus’ day, from what I understand, farmers usually broadcast their seed over the plowed earth. That is, they carried a bag of seed into the field, and scattered it about by hand in every direction. Without the modern harvesters there was no particular need to plant straight rows.

Jesus tells us in another parable how the scattered seed often went to waste. Some landed on rocks, some in barren holes, and some on the footpath. Only some of it landed on good soil but, apparently, that was enough to satisfy the farmer.

This method of broadcasting may sound wasteful to us. Farmers in the industrialized world have seed-planting machines that are computer-controlled. Guided by GPS and soil tests, they can plant seeds one by one. They utilize the most fertile spots and pass over the barren places.

David turns 64!

The ancient method, perhaps, copied the ways of the natural world. When we look at the common maple tree we see how it broadcasts literally millions of winged seeds in the course of its life. They are controlled only by the wind and most of them never germinate. A single Redwood might spread billions of seeds during its thousand-year life. But it needs only one seed to sprout and grow to replace itself.

Many of the animal kingdom are as prodigal as the trees; some female fish and insects lay eggs by the thousand. Most of the eggs are eaten before they hatch; many of the hatchlings never swim; but the species survives. Such is the efficiency of nature.

Jesus encourages us with the example of nature. “Look at the birds of the air. They neither toil nor spin yet not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these!”

His Gospel is like the scattered seed. It cannot fail. Though my efforts or yours might seem to fail; and we might suppose nothing comes of all our struggle, only God can see the big picture and He assures us it is good.

When the harvest comes no one will be able to say, “I planted this tree or that flower.” But we will see a new heaven and a new earth. We will know our work has been satisfied and the harvest is plentiful.