THE FAMILY SOWING AND REAPING

WEDNESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eph 6:1-9; Ps 145:10-14; Lk 13:22-30

The Family spiritual Sowing and Reaping

St. Paul continues his exposition of the mystery of Christian life as obtained within the family setting. The growth of the Christian faith in the family is about sowing and reaping. Our Lord’s analogy of the mustard seed already points to this understanding. What we sow determines what we reap; if we sow in the field of flesh, we will reap corruption, and if we sow in the field of the spirit, we will reap peace, harmony, and eternal life. As mentioned yesterday, the man and woman are called in marriage to sow in the field of the spirit by obeying the will of God in their commitment to each other in marriage. The first fruit of their wholehearted commitment to the Gospel of the Lord is their sincere love and respect for each other. Their sincere love and respect for each other bear fruits in their children. Their children around the table like shoots of the olive draw spiritual, moral, social, and material life from their mother who is like a fruitful vine in the heart of the house, and from their father who labours fruitfully in fear of the Lord. This illustrates the multiple fruition of what we sow in the Lord through the Holy Spirit. Hence, the scripture says that generous sowing means plentiful reaping or harvest. The plan to have a blessed family does not start at marriage but at a youthful age.

We must know what to sow and what to expect from our sowing as the harvest or fruit. Paul admonished children to be obedient to their parents to reap blessedness. “Children, be obedient to your parents in the Lord—that is your duty. The commandment that has a promise attached to it is: Honour your father and mother, and the promise is: and you will prosper and have a long life in the land.” The obedience of children to their parents acts as a nursery or seedbed for their later obedience to the Lord, which comes with blessedness, as the Psalmist informed us. The man who fears the Lord and walks in his ways was first an obedient son to his parents, and the woman who is like a fruitful vine in the heart of her husband’s house was first an obedient girl to her parents. The parents receive the love and providential care of the Lord, following their faithful commitment to the Gospel. They transmit love and care to their children and nurture them in God’s love. Paul’s admonition clarified this understanding of the flow of love and care from the Lord to the children. “And parents, never drive your children to resentment but in bringing them up correct them and guide them as the Lord does.” Since no one can give what he does not have, we must open ourselves daily to God’s loving care and providence to transmit it to our children and everyone within our interaction. We must treat everyone with the love we receive from God, slave or free, young or old, male or female, etc. That is the Gospel practice.

The love we share as Christians, within and outside the family, is the story we tell of God’s goodness as his friends. “All your creatures shall thank you, O Lord, and your friends shall repeat their blessing. They shall speak of the glory of your reign and declare your might, O God.” This proclamation was the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ, to proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God among men. The kingdom comes through us, through our commitment to the will of God daily, as expressed in his word. It involves the husband and wife obeying the will of God and the children obeying their parents. It involves the rulers obeying the will of God and the ruled doing likewise; the slaves and the masters obeying the will of God and living out the Gospel mandate to love God with all our hearts, minds, and strength. It is the narrow path we must pass to enter the kingdom of God. “Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved? He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.” Nobody will be found inside the house when the master locks the door, who is a stranger to the will of God. We have to sow first, as reaping comes last.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, the grace to embrace your holy will in all things, that we may happily sow in the field of spirit and await with joyful hope the fruition of what we have sown in and with your Holy Spirit in eternal life you gave us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.