How It All Happens

Gospel: Mark 4: 26-34

Most of us city dwellers don't realize how much we have in common with the farmer.  It isn't until we find ourselves in some moment of epiphiany - how did I get here, how did this all happen? - that we find this analogy of Jesus relevant to our lives.  A farmer sows a crop, fertilizes and tills it as best he can.  The crop grows, but is it all due to his efforts? In part, yes, but there are things he does not control: the sun, the weather.  In the end it is a miracle and a gift that his crop has grown to provide for him and others.

The same is true in our spiritual lives.  We seek to lead lives that will produce spiritual fruit that benefit ourselves and others.  We cultuvate habits, pray, frequent the sacraments, and the like.  All of our efforts are necessary, but they are not sufficient to explain the growth we find in our lives.  Moreover, there are things provided to us we cannot attribute to ourselves, circumstances of life, socialization, and other things provided to us that have been providential in helping us become who we are.

So, in the end the spiritual life is a combination of things we can attribute to our own efforts, but also enveloped within a great mystery of divine providence for which we can only ponder and give thanks as we can claim credit for none of it.  The sparrow builds her nest, but did not plant or produce the mustard tree.  We built our nests on foundations provided to us as well, foundations that arose from the tinist and humblest of seeds.