Divine Life Within Us

06-16-2024Pastor's LetterVery Rev. Richard C. Wilson, VF, Pastor

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today, Jesus gives us two parables about farming: the parable of the scattered seed, and the parable of the mustard seed. These were images that people listening to Jesus could relate to, since most of them spent their days in the fields planting, caring for the crops and reaping. Our Lord told these parables using something they knew —agricultural work— in order to teach them something they did not know about: the Kingdom of God!

Indeed, Jesus teaches something about his spiritual Kingdom. In the first parable He says: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land” (Mk 4:26). And He introduces the second by saying, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God…? It is like a mustard seed” (Mk 4:30).

Many of us have little experience with farming for a living; yet these parables can powerfully resonate in our modern minds because we still understand a great deal about planting, watering and harvesting. Somehow, we sense through his words, that God has planted something in our hearts that is always and constantly calling us to Him. What is the Kingdom of God? It is “Jesus himself,” as Pope Benedict XVI instructed us. And our soul “is the essential location of the Kingdom of God.” God wants to live and grow inside us. If we seek God's wisdom and obey his commands, our life will become as steady as a rock and acquire a power and purpose that we can barely imagine.

If we patiently respond to his grace, his divine life will definitely grow in the soul the way seed grows in the field or, as the medieval mystic, Meister Eckhart, has beautifully expressed: “The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is and accordingly, its fruits will be God’s nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God seed into God.”

May we be careful to water, to nurture that seed, that divine life that is within us!

All the best…in Christ,

Father Wilson