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.