I am not much of a gardener but I try my best to try and ensure that what I plant has the best chance to grow and flourish. Thus I am careful in what I purchase, make sure that the ground is prepared, and that I water and fertilize the plant. However, this is not the image that is presented in the Gospel. In this, the gardener keeps sowing the seed regardless of whether it will grow in the environment in which it will land. This seems to be a paradox because you would think that God knows where the seed has the best chance to grow. Yet what we notice is that in some way we have to play our part in being able to receive the word into our hearts. That means that we not only hear it but also have to create an environment in which it can be heard.
This is often difficult in our modern environment when there is a tsunami of words and we do not know how to sift what brings life and what distracts us from trying to live in a way that is alien to us. I believe this is why we need periods of silent meditation with scripture where we allow the word to filter more deeply into us. In Lectio Divina we first hear the word so that we can notice what grabs our attention, we read it a second time to see what moves us to pay attention to our own feelings, and we read it a third time to notice where it addresses aspects of our own life and then we have time for it to settle more deeply inside us and take root.
In this way, the word becomes at one with our thinking, our feeling, and our acting. We become at one with the word as part of mind, body, and spirit. In slowing down we allow God's word the best chance to take a hold of us and become firmly planted in who we seek to become.
No comments:
Post a Comment