Lord’s Day Reflection: ‘The seed of a fruitful harvest’

By Fr. Edmund Power, OSB

In this month of June in the northern hemisphere, we are heading step by step towards the middle of summer; let's take a walk among the trees.

The Word of God for this Sunday invites us to do so. Crossing the Tiber from the center of Rome, you can climb to the top of Janiculum Hill and stroll along the avenues of large plane trees that adorn its summit.

The prophet Ezekiel tells us how the Lord will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar And plant it on a high and lofty mountain.

The goal, however, is not exaltation: the noble cedar that will emerge from the shoot is there to welcome and protect. Anyone who finds themselves in a superior position to others must remember to constantly resist the temptation to become lord/lady: the Lord brings down the big tree and do up the tree down.

Today's Gospel is explicit about Jesus' teaching method: he did not speak to them without a parable.

Parables touch our imagination by evoking the ordinary things of everyday life and then inviting us to think about how they might have another meaning.

The Lord acts today in the world of fields and gardens: we have seeds, cereals and shrubs.

The first of the two parables begins with human initiative and dedication: the sower is the one who scatters the seeds on the ground. Then begins the slow, regular and mysterious operation of divine grace (he doesn't know how) which brings everything to harvest. As Shakespeare tells us: “Mature is everything.”

But what could this seed be? The Word of God ? Good example? An act of generosity? A project worthy of interest and well thought out? Any useful advice? There is no need to limit its possible meaning.

The seed of the second parable is very small: the smallest of all seeds on earth.

We might be tempted to think that something so insignificant doesn't even deserve our attention. Yet the inexorable germ of the divine presence in the mustard seed sown on the ground grows new life, creating the largest of all shrubs which, like the lofty cedar of Ezekiel, offers welcome, shade and protection.

So what does the Lord say to us on this eleventh Sunday in ordinary time?

Do our part, no matter how small; to live in hope, trusting that He will do His greater part, even if we cannot always see either the process or the fruit; believe in one's plans for cultivation and growth; and perhaps even to enjoy and protect the beauties of the natural world.