Seed and Flower - 15th Ordinary Sunday

(Story about a spiritual teacher and his disciple who asks a puzzling question—“Is what makes the tree move either tree or wind?” The teacher answers, “It is neither the tree nor the wind. It is your heart!” Let anyone with ears listen!)

Suppose you meet God who is willing to fulfill your three wishes whatever you ask for. What would you like to ask?
Paul is the one who was asked three wished by God. Without hesitation, Paul asked God to make him a superstar so that he would become very popular and every body would love him. God did so, but soon he found that being famous was extremely hard: people called him all the time day and night, asked for his autograph waiting outside his home whole night, paparazzi followed him every where, many people became stokers. So Paul reluctantly asked God the second wish, asking all the people bothered him to be taken away. God did so. He found he had only one wish left. He thought day and night what he wanted to ask, but he couldn’t make one wish because he didn’t want to lose other things like being successful, athletic, famous, rich and so on. Totally exhausted, he finally asked God, “My God, tell me what I need to ask for my wishes?” God answered, “If I were you, I would ask wisdom to know the truth, courage to follow the truth and love to live the truth.” “But I already lost my three wishes,” he said. God responded, “Don’t worry. I already planted wisdom, courage and love within you. The only thing you need to know is that all good things are given as seeds planted in you, so you strive to nourish and develop the seeds in you to bear much fruit.”

Today, we heard many seeds in the gospel.
In ancient time, Israelites sowed seed very differently. They just threw the seed in the air and the wind blew it anywhere. That’s why some seed fell on the path, other seed on rocky ground, other among thorns, others on rich soil. What happened to them? The bird ate it up, the other were withered or choked, but some seed on the rich soil produced fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.

Think about any seed. What do you expect to come out of the seed? Flowers! How do you know that? Can you see flowers in the seed? No, but we know the seeds grow to become flowers. How come? It is natural as well as supernatural because no human beings can make little flowers even though they can make computers and satellites. Only God can make the seed grow, become flowers and bear fruit. Think about any seed. Can you see flowers in the seed? Yes, we know that all life belongs to God who makes things grow, become flowers and bear fruits.

Likewise, I think all of us are seed planted on the earth by God. No one is without God’s purpose just like nothing is accidental. God has a special plan for each of us. In other words, we all are going to be flowers. What kind of flowers do you want to be?

Karen was thirteen, her father declared bankruptcy. That was the year they all made their Christmas presents. She remembers waiting for Christmas with more than the usual anticipation because she had secretly knit a sweater for her father. On the Christmas morning, there was a box not likely to contain something homemade. She looked at it with suspicion. Her father smiled, “it’s for you.” Inside were a pair of twenty-four-karat gold earrings. They were exquisite. “Aren’t you going to try them on?” So she took them into the bathroom, closed the door, and put them on her ears. Cautiously she looked into the mirror. The earrings looked weird. Tearing them from her ears, she rushed back into the living room and flung them on the floor. “How could you do this?” she resented, “Why are you making fun of me? Take them back. They look stupid. I’m too ugly to wear them. How could you waste all this money?” Then she burst into tears. Waiting for her tears dried out, her father said, “I know they don’t look right now. But I bought them because someday they will suit you perfectly.” After years passed by, she is truly grateful to have survived her adolescence. At some of its lowest moments, she would get out the box and look at the earrings. Her father had spent a hundred dollars he didn’t have because he believed in the person she was becoming. It was something to hold on to.

Human being is more a verb than a noun. Each of us is unfinished, a work in progress. We are seeds that would become beautiful flowers someday. If life is process the process to grow, all judgments are provisional. We can’t judge something until it is finished. No one has won or lost until the race is over. When I was working at the social welfare facility called New Directions that helps the adolescents who are addicted to drug and alcohol, I kept talking to myself, “These boys were addicted and yet they would be someone whom I admire someday.” I just don’t know God’s plan for them and what kind of flower they would be. Simply trusting process of life has a great power.

Now let the seed, that is God’s gift in us, grow and not to be taken, withered, and choked by Satan. Think about whatever God’s gifts in you. What kind of flower would you want to be? How do you want to praise God’s name with your beauty? If you know you are not finished yet, you would be more patient on others and yourself, trusting God’s special plan for all of us. You will become a beautiful flower someday, and will bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold. Now in silence, look at God’s gifts in you, thanking for them and letting it grow.

Rest for Your Summer Vacation (14th Ordinary Sunday)

Where are you going to spend your summer vacation? Around the Fourth of July, we often hear the question about our plans for summer vacation. It is a general leave of absence from a regular occupation, so it is a special time in which we want to find recreation, relax and opportunities to bond friends and family. In order to do that, we have to make some decisions: Where are we going to go? When do we take off? How much money do we plan to spend? What kind of activities are we going to do? Once our plans come along with these questions, we are ready to go. Go away for fun and relax.

However, the reality is sometimes different because people need more time after the vacation—the real time for rest! Many are usually occupied with plans and activities that cause people to become exhausted in the hustle and bustle of doing something, eventually hoping for some time for quietness and peace. In other words, we often stay in the surface of vacation by being away and enjoying the ability to afford to do something not found in the routine of life. But in the deeper level of vacation, we are eager to be refreshed so that we can come back to the normal life with renewed spirit. For this spiritual rest, Jesus says today, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Jesus promises us rest. But this does not mean some time off, less work and more sleep. Rather, this invitation goes out to all who are weary, who can no longer find pleasure in life, whose backs are bent with the burdens of each day. This is an invitation to all of suffering humanity, especially those whose suffering has caused them to lose heart. And this spiritual rest happens when our true nature is realized because our hearts are restless until they rest in God as St. Augustine said. Thus Jesus introduces us to the God who will restore to us the goodness of creation and this inner realization of rest happens when we live in harmony with ourselves, our neighbor, our nature and God.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy and my burden light.” The way to this spiritual rest is to yoke ourselves to Jesus. This means we must undertake Jesus’ disciplines and learn from him. To me, this is the loving invitation that has shaped my vocation to the priesthood. The scripture passage I chose for the priestly ordination is not just for the ceremony but for the life of service to the end of my life. My heart was restless when I was trying to find “my way” in college. When I began my business career in China, the restless heart intensified, and weariness afflicted the mind with a labor and a burden. I couldn’t sleep much and couldn’t eat well. The lasting fatigue lingered within me. Ideas and distractions captured the mind and they whipped it night and day and finally blew me away to the miserable situation. All I wanted was rest.

Many Catholics say that they come to the church to look for peace of soul. This is the fundamental desire in us to rest in God, finding ourselves in the right place so that we feel secured and loved by the one who is not changeable. My Lord and my God has done this for me. So I carry this scripture passage with the smiling Jesus. (Showing my holy card for the priestly ordination) I have finally found rest in God. No, the more accurate way to say is that God has found me, making me trust that everything will be all right because this spiritual rest in God is allowing ourselves to be carried by life without strain or effort on our part. D.H. Lawrence pictures the spiritual rest as “a cat asleep on a chair/ at peace, in peace…Sleeping on the hearth of the living world/ yawning at home before the fire of life/ feeling the presence of the living God/ like a great reassurance/ a deep calm in the heart…”

The spiritual rest is trusting in the life that has been given as a gift, realizing that “All that matters is to be at one with the living God and to be a creature in the house of the God of life.” I hope you understand your vacation is already begun in this sense and, wherever you go for the vacation, celebrate your life in God, accepting Jesus’ invitation for the rest and learning the lesson of the cat.

Interdependence DAy

First of all, it is honor to preside the Eucharistic celebration for this special occasion called Independence Day. At the same time, I feel little burdened to be in the position to preach the gospel in light of American national holiday because there would be a certain gap between my knowledge of American history and your life built on it. Nevertheless, I see there would be a converged point where God has revealed the value of Independence and beyond.

Since I came to the United States, I have found something very different about the country which I would be never able to discover unless I came here. To many outsiders, the most affluent country could be not an ideal place to live because of its materialism, secularism and individualism. Celebrities in Hollywood that many people outside believe that they represent the country has given a wrong impression such as hedonism. No wonder why many outside the country often see the country in the negative point of view because of the bad influence of the media. If we believe in the statement that no country is an island, it is not a problem for a country but for all.

However, it is not all true. I have met so many great people in America who are compassionate to other’s happiness and who are filled with zeal to build the faith-based country. These great people are not just satisfied with being Americans; rather, they strive to be world citizens. They have not just fought for independence; they live in accordance with interdependence—the new reality that has defined who we are, especially Catholics that literally means universal believers. 

When Pope Benedict 16^th visited the country and addressed the United Nations General Assembly, he emphasized the duty to protect, the responsibility to uphold human rights even if it means overriding national sovereignty, promoting solidarity with most vulnerable regions of the world. In listening to the address, I realized that I could testify the universal believers who have already lived the duty to protect in the United States and live among us now. 

Dorothy Day founded the Catholic Worker that has dedicated themselves more than seventy-five years in New York City in serving the homeless with a soup and bread every day and advocating human rights in accordance with the social justice of Jesus Christ. They are truly Catholics who know their dependence on God as well as their interdependence on others while many celebrate their independence in self-satisfaction. And I have been also witnessing so many generous hearts that have helped the vulnerable of the other countries in case of Tsunami, the hurricane and the earthquake through Catholic Relief Services. I believe this is the power and the spirit of the United States. As the pope said, this is a land of great faith. So, on Independence Day, I invite you to celebrate something bigger and beyond to which we Catholics are called. Our independence will shine forth if we know our interdependence with one another and take a poignant role to lead others as the land of great faith. God bless America!