HE KNOWS NOT HOW

Ez 17,22-24; Ps 91; 2 Cor 5,6-10; Mk 4,26-34
17 JUNE
A farmer sows some good seed in his field. It carries within it a germ of life. Once entrusted to the earth, it begins its particular process and development of life. The farmer can only watch over it, so that it is not destroyed by external agents, but growth and maturation do not depend on him. St. Peter applies this truth to every disciple of Jesus. The word of God is the incorruptible seed that God has placed in our hearts and that must produce a fruit of eternal life. However, this seed must find in our soul, in our spirit and in our body the good earth to be able to develop, grow, mature and produce every good fruit of holiness.

Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as of a spotless unblemished lamb. He was known before the foundation of the world but revealed in the final time for you, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a (pure) heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God, for: “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of the field; the grass withers, and the flower wilts; but the word of the Lord remains forever.” This is the word that has been proclaimed to you (1Pt 1,17-25).

Even the Apostle John reveals this truth to Christians. They carry in their hearts a divine seed of holiness, grace and holy spirit. They cannot sin, because this seed is of holiness not of sin, of truth not of falsehood, of obedience never of disobedience. The Christian must always be the good ground for the seed to reach its full maturation, development, growth and fruiting. It is his mission.

Children, let no one deceive you. The person who acts in righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. Whoever sins belongs to the devil, because the devil has sinned from the beginning. Indeed, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is begotten by God commits sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot sin because he is begotten by God. In this way, the children of God and the children of the devil are made plain; no one who fails to act in righteousness belongs to God, nor anyone who does not love his brother (1Jn 3,7-10).

When does the word we sow in the hearts carry this divine seed with it? When it comes out of our heart as a true vehicle of the Holy Spirit. If the heart is devoid of the Holy Spirit, the word will also be devoid of the Holy Spirit. If given, it does not produce fruit. The divine seed that is the Spirit of the Lord is lacking in it. Heart, Holy Spirit and Word given must be one thing. The Holy Spirit is the divine seed and not the Word. The word is only the vehicle that will necessarily have to bring the Spirit into the hearts.

He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

What is the preaching then? The vehicle through which the Holy Spirit is given.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, fill us with the Holy Spirit to give a word of salvation.