2024 11th Sunday of the Year (B)
The readings we just heard tell us about growth. The seed that’s thrown on the land grows. How? The farmer doesn’t know. It had little or nothing to do with him. Now, Christ often uses parables to tell us an important truth. He’s not really interested in seeds but He is interested in us. The seed is our faith. It is planted in us when we were baptised. And over the years it grows. How? We don’t know. But God knows. Sometimes the growth is remarkable. I want to share with you about this growth in an Irish nun.
I was reading the catholic newspaper yesterday called ‘The Tablet’. In it is saw a photo of an Irish nun. She died some many years ago. When I read the story I realised she was the aunt of one of our parishioners; he’s told me about her. She was sent to France in the Frist World War to work as a nurse in a hospital. There she helped wounded soldiers from both sides. She returned to Ireland after the war but at the outbreak of the second world war she went back to France, to a small town called, Bethune. Once again, she worked as a nurse, caring for soldiers who had been hurt during the fighting. At the same time, she worked with the French resistance helping English prisoners to escape. She was betrayed and was arrested by the Gestapo. They sentenced her to death. However, for some reason, they didn’t shoot her but sent her instead to a concentration camp. It would have been better to have been shot. She remained for four years in this hell hole until she was liberated by the allies in 1945. Her nephew told me that she had not become embittered by what she went through, on the contrary, she was still a delightful person.
This is a story of someone whose faith, once a little seed, had grown till it had become a huge tree. This is what faith can do to a person. We too were given faith as a little seed. Without our knowing how or why that faith grew in each and every one of us. Some are given more than others. Why? This is a mystery. As the years go by so our faith continues to grow. We appreciate it more. We realise how important it has been in our lives, that we don’t know what we would have done without it, especially in times of difficuties.
Then we look at others who seem to have little or no faith. It disturbs us, especially when it concerns our family. Why don’t they go to church? But what we have to realize is that faith is not just a seed, it is also a gift. It is given to us freely, we don’t earn it. What God wants us to do is the share our faith with others, beginning with those who are closest to us. Faith is given to us for a reason; yes, to help us to grow, but also to share that faith with others. When you have something precious you want to share it with others, and there is nothing more precious than faith.
That Irish nun has impressed me so much by her life. It is because of people like her that I have faith today. You too have the same gift of faith. Live in such a way that you too will impress others. They may never tell you, but they will always notice. Then leave the rest to God. He is always ready to sow that seed.
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