ELEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

God's Will

Our world is full of modern conveniences that allow us to go places faster, do daily activities faster, reach and talk to people face to face in far away places faster. But if you have ever planted a seed, you will notice that it progresses slowly in time: God's timing.

God sent us the Eternal Word, Jesus, to remind us and teach us about God's love for us, God's will for us, God's way of life. If we are quiet, empty ourselves of our impatience to do, to be, to go, and we listen for His still, small voice, we will hear Him. Ezekiel in his inspired wisdom in the first reading tells us how our Lord, our God, wants to lift us up and make our very being fruitful. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves when we surrender to His will and way of life.

Is this easy? Sometimes, and sometimes it is the hardest thing we are called to do. Too often, in hindsight, I find that I did not listen to that small, still voice of God. I had plans; I had commitments; I, I, I. God and God's will for me is not found in I. As St. Paul tells us, we will all be judged at the 'seat of Christ' and be judged by what we did in the body, whether good or evil.'

A French philosopher and Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, shared, “Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.” In the Gospel reading today Jesus compares the kingdom of God to sowing seeds. “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 through it all 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.” 

Seeds grow in the timing God has given them.  And so, we, like a plant through the free will given to us by God, need to choose to let God plant us in His soil, His way of life. In this life we will often find that where we are and where we want to be differs from God's plan for us. We have become accustomed to near instantaneous results. Yet, God’s kingdom works a bit differently. He has great plans for us if we remain patient with ourselves and continue to seek His will in all things.

–Jennifer Peña

Send Us Forth are reflections written by St. Matthew parishioners and friends.