Fifteenth Sunday

Fifteenth Sunday Ordinary
July 10, 2005

"We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now... we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies." (Romans 8:18-23) "... the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it...." (Matthew 13: 1-23)

St. Paul continues his thoughts about body and spirit with that wonderful line about all creation "groaning" for completion. Jesus tells the parable of the seed and the sower.

We Christians have only recently begun to catch up with St. Paul in realizing that renewal and rebirth applies to more than human beings. We are only a part of God's creation. It is only in the last several hundred years that we have become capable of saving or destroying our habitat. Our own sacred earthly envelope of life is indeed "groaning" under the weight of human pressure to survive and prosper. We have a short window of time in which to cooperate with, or frustrate, the divine plan for renewing the face of the earth.

Only a few short years ago I was a poster boy for late midlife physical fitness. When that all changed, I learned that I must adapt or die. I was fortunate enough to have some advance notice that my life would become one series of adaptations. Running and walking more slowly and carefully (I still have dreams in which I'm walking -- very carefully so as not to fall); living in a wheelchair; relying on others for every daily need. Someone remarked to me early on that I would "rediscover the pleasures of infancy". True enough, along with the anxieties which accompany it. It would be easy at any point to just decide that I'm done with adapting. But I know that this would mean choosing death, something I'm not willing, or maybe even able to do. Are we, or the earth we love any less dependent on each other than I am?

The seeds of unpredictable changes in personal life and our world fall indiscriminately. It is up to us to provide an environment where they can take root and grow into something permanent. We are all faced with the challenge to adapt to new circumstances personally and as a species. Sooner or later all of us must face the reality of deteriorating strength and health. Perhaps also we must question whether we are entitled to use up the earth's resources anyway we like for the sake of our own selfish definition of prosperity. Even in eternity we do not leave our bodies behind. Our destiny is to be renewed and perfected. In fact, in a certain way, every time we adapt to new physical and spiritual challenges, we recognize how this process of completion is happening at this very moment. The final adaptation is to accepting the reality and inevitability of death as the beginning of something new and perfect.