June 14, 2015 Click on the left end of the black bar to play/pause
June 14, 2015
Mark 4:26-34
Fr. George Smiga
We may feel stuck and our lives stalled, but God is still working. There may be a problem in our family we have tried to resolve time and time again, without success. So we begin to wonder, “Is there anything that can be done to fix it?” We may have experienced a deep loss or betrayal that brought our lives to a standstill, and although we try to adjust, to get back into the game, we cannot budge ourselves forward. We begin to think, “Will there ever come a time when I will be normal again?” We may have a hope or a dream that we would like to achieve, and we work at it. But possibilities do not materialize and opportunities evaporate. We are left wondering, “What else could be done?”
We can feel stuck or stalled, but God is still working. This is what Jesus is trying to tell us in today’s parable. A farmer takes a seed and places it in the ground. It begins to grow. Then he leaves to go back to his life, going to sleep and rising in the morning, day after day. Without his thinking or his direction the seed on its own produces the blade and then the ripe fruit. The growing seed in the parable is meant to represent God’s action in our lives. Independent of us, God is moving our lives to something good. Despite our doubts, frustrations, and failures, God is working in silent and secret ways to keep growth alive, to move us forward.
So today’s parable reminds us that the good things in our life are not all of our own doing. Reconciliation, healing, and forward movement are often the result of God working behind the scenes. We do this and that, and we should. But it is when God acts that things become successful.
This is why we should always be ready. In the parable when the grain ripens the farmer wields the sickle at once because the harvest has come. We must be ready to act at once when the right time arrives. We may have been trying to make peace with a family member or a friend over and over again without success. But then something changes and God opens a door. We must be ready at once to walk through it. We may be stuck in our grief for months or years with no energy to move forward. But then there is a phone call and an invitation, and we hear God’s voice. We should be ready at once to say yes. We might have tried to solve a problem from every angle without success. And then a new opportunity emerges, and we know that it is God’s gift. We must be ready at once to accept it.
When we run out of options, when there seems to be no hope, today’s parable reminds us that God is still working secretly, bringing growth to our lives. This is why we must never give up, and we must always watch for God’s growth to mature. Because when it does, we must wield the sickle at once for the harvest has come.