Daily Gospel Reflection for January 24 2018

Today's Gospel: Mark 4:1-20 - Memorial of St. Francis de Sales The garden soil is good, and the weeds love it as much as the flowers. I hadn't been as attentive as in past, and the weeds had run uninhibited. In my hurry to clean things up a lot of what was good was damaged. I was weary, I wanted to get the job done, and was mad at myself for letting things get out of hand. I didn't care enough to take time to tease out the roots of weeds, resulting in two problems: I did not look close enough at the roots of the good plants to know which ones were the weeds, and the bad roots that remained simply re-grew, still imbedded in the good. In frustration I simply threw healthy plants into the compost, and began again. I know as a gardener that attentiveness to a garden is essential. Tending to the garden of our soul is the same. In the Parable of the Sower, our journey is not in isolation. The seed that fell on the path nourished another if not our self. The shallow rocky soil led us to learn that we, when faced with the True Light, needed more productive soil in our souls. When among thorns and weeds, we may grow to a certain point, but our fruit is stunted. We are potential, but surrounded by not-of-God, we falter. God is extravagant in spreading seeds. The seed that falls on the good soil of our soul is intended to be “…a garden in which her Beloved Lord is to take his delight…" (St. Teresa of Avila). We must be willing to be open to the seeds that God sends or we are like those who, unwilling to listen, do not understand and fail to bear fruit in a shallow, inhospitable heart.