Word from the Pastor

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

God is distilling the soil of our hearts to produce abundant fruit.
Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 8:18-23, Matthew 13:1-23 or 13:1-9

Dear parish family,​
There’s a common misconception that arises when we hear today’s Gospel. We know that the different types of soil represent different responses that people can have to God’s word. And yet many of us presume that if the soil of our hearts is like the rocky ground or the soil with the patch of thorns, it’s up to us alone to till the soil.

Today’s readings remind us that God is not only the sower; he is the one who tills the soil. Our spiritual fruitfulness is not the result of our own labors, but, rather, our responsiveness to God’s work in our hearts. As our psalm reminds us, it is God who has visited the land and watered it; he is the one who has prepared the land… drenching its furrows, breaking up its clods, softening it with showers, blessing its yield. Although God calls us to imitate the perfection of his Son, Jesus Christ, any spiritual growth we experience is the result of God’s grace at work in us.

Paul’s Letter to the Romans reminds us that all creation is groaning in labor pains… we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Labor pains. What an apt metaphor to consider here! Unless a woman’s labor is medically induced, it is largely a process outside her control. Paul’s image of us being in labor  waiting for God’s redemption  again reminds us that God is the one at work in us. We’re not the ones in control of that process! Doctors, midwives, and doulas often tell laboring mothers not to fight contractions but to breathe through them, to surrender themselves to them, allowing the process to progress.

With these images, God is inviting us to cooperate with the ways he is at work in us. If we’re in a season where God is rooting out the “rocks” in our spiritual soil (vices, bad habits, lack of forgiveness), then we must cooperate with that. If we’re in a season of God pulling out weeds and thorn bushes (removing distractions that divert our focus from him), then we must cooperate with that work in our hearts.

As we come to this Eucharist, let us ask the Lord for the grace of greater awareness of our own spiritual condition, and discernment of the ways that God is at work in us. May we open our hearts to a greater level of surrender, that the Lord will be able to produce abundant fruit in our lives.

Rev. Fritzner Bellonce
Pastor