Today on Respect Life Sunday, we hear Jesus use the image of a mustard seed. The mustard seed is so tiny, not much larger than a grain of sand, yet when planted and nurtured, grows into a large, strong tree. This takes time though. As we look around today, let us remember how all of us were once the size of a mustard seed, but now, loved and nurtured, we have grown in body, mind, and spirit.
A gardener plants seeds in the spring, nurtures the tender shoots by watering and weeding and fertilizing, tends them throughout the summer, allowing them to flower, then harvests their fruit in the fall. Within each one of us are seeds that were planted before we were born. There are seeds of kindness and courage, generosity and patience, faith, hope, and love. But we were also born with seeds of vices as well as virtues. Which seeds do we nurture? Which seeds do we care for? Are we nurturing the tender shoots or the invasive weeds? Nurturing requires attention and action. We nurture the seeds of virtue by exercising those virtues. We exercise kindness and generosity through acts of care and charity. We exercise courage when we stand up for what we believe in when it’s easier not to. We exercise faith by placing our trust in God. We exercise respect for life when we treat all creation with loving care, especially the highest of all creation, human life, from the moment of conception until natural death.
Love, Peace, Joy
Fr. Bob
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