15th Sunday in Ordinary time
Readings:
Isaiah 55: 10-11
Romans 8: 18-23
Matthew 13: 1-9
Reflection:
It is hard to believe, but inside an itty-bitty apple seed is a tree filled with apples.
Amazing to think about, isn’t it? One small seed. The power to produce a crop, to grow into a beautiful tree – producing endless amounts of delicious fruit – is in a tiny seed. It’s really quite mysterious and miraculous! All because God is at work.
Small things of God are able to become great things.
Do you ever feel like your efforts, your actions, your kindness, and your words don’t really matter? Do you feel at times that the noise around you prevents you from hearing? From listening with your ears?
Today’s Gospel reminds us that they are! Our actions matter because God is at work even when we cannot see or hear him. He is at work in us and through us.
We may never be famous or make headlines, but the seeds He plants in us and through us are our opportunity to live for Him. Don’t discount your contribution because it doesn’t seem like enough. Scatter those seeds. You are doing needful work. God can do extraordinary things through us – in our ordinary.
Words of encouragement, an offered prayer, a word of hope, a small act of kindness. Seeds. They are all seeds.
Every small act plants one small seed.
Imagine what the world would miss out on if all those tiny seeds were thought of ‘as not worth it’? We never know how He will grow a seed. And in His time, they will grow. We may or may not even see them. But that is how it works… in His way and in His time. We can be at peace knowing we faithfully did our part and now His miraculous work is to come.
Keep planting those seeds!
Sr Karen Englebretsen CP, Cross and Passion Sisters. blessed to be a spiritual care worker in the homeless sector in Melbourne.