Small Seeds and Great Growth

Recent events have inspired me to put a post from my Scripture Readings Reflection blog onto my Paul Ponders blog.

On Sunday, June 13, 2021, the Oak Park middle schools held their 8th grade graduation ceremonies.  That same Sunday, the readings at Mass focused on seeds and their growth.

Jesus presents some marvelous imagery in the parables in the Gospel reading.

The farmer plants seeds and does his part tending to them, but then the process of the seeds becoming plants in full bloom unfolds in ways beyond his control or understanding.  Then there's the incredible reality of how the tiny mustard seed becomes such a large bush.

It is truly marvelous to think of how God is similarly at work in our lives.  While we can't see God, He reveals Himself to us, so that we walk by faith, not by sight, as St. Paul writes, striving to please God in this life as we journey toward the judgment.

As we devote our lives to putting faith into action through righteous deeds, God is at work in ways that we can't fully understand or control, though we know His work is really happening because of the fruits that come to bear.  Ultimately, God mightily declares Who He is through these deeds, doing what He alone can do.

Yet we marvel at how God invites us to be transformed so that even our small deeds of righteousness, kindness, and compassion can be part of His plan to advance the Kingdom of God on Earth, which is not a place, but a way of life.  By faith, we open ourselves up to how our deeds can be part of God's plan to advance the Kingdom by making God known.  So we constantly strive to do good works, ready for God's action through them.

At the June 13 ceremonies, 27 of the students I taught in RE class this past year graduated from both Brooks and Julian Middle Schools.

As a Religious Education teacher, part of my role is to plant seeds, and then open up to how God does His part to bring them forth to fruition.  By faith, I recognize that the seeds planted during their time in RE class will come to fruition, though I know not how it happens, and even if I'm not there to see the fruition.

Furthermore, I recognize in my experience that so many seeds were planted during my middle school years, especially in becoming a person of deep faith, which have born great fruit over the past 16 years, and I marvel to think of how God has been at work in wondrous ways that He alone can do.

I also recall how I was part of the first group of students to start middle school in 6th grade and then attend 7th and 8th grade in middle school.  I planted seeds that became part of the middle school experience in Oak Park today.

It's been great to teach RE for middle schoolers so I can connect with today's middle schoolers and see how the schools have turned out from the foundation I helped lay, even as I help to continue building on the foundation by accompanying my students in their faith journey at a time when I experience significant growth in my life.  And now I get to be part of the work of handing on the faith, which is something truly wondrous.