July 13, 2014: Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
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In each of our lives, there are times we are not as receptive as we could be to God’s grace working within us. Worry about finances, our jobs, health, or family can be the thorns which inhibit spiritual growth. How do we cultivate “good soil” within ourselves? What can we do to be receptive to God’s grace so that we can yield good fruit, thus becoming the people God intended us to be?
Those of us who are burdened by so many responsibilities that we are weighed down might find it hard to trust that God intends goodness for us. We are unable to experience the hope that Jesus extends to us each and every day we are alive. We go about our daily tasks, heads low, eyes downcast, afraid there is nothing happy or beautiful on the horizon of our futures.
But Jesus says to us in Matthew 11: 28-30, “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
It is telling that Jesus gave this message to his disciples shortly after he sent them out, two by two, to fulfill his mission (Mt. 10: 5-14). The fact that first Jesus invites the weary and then sends his disciples forth tells me that Jesus knows that following him isn’t always easy and that sometimes we get tired, and that’s OK.
As long as we keep asking him for help, as long as we don’t rely on our own power or strength, we will be the “good soil” that Jesus talks about in today’s gospel, soil that “indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty” (Mt. 13: 223).
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