The priest in the mass I attended last Sunday talked about the gospel of the weeds and the wheat. I’m not sure if that was supposed to be the “real” Gospel (I’ve lost track of these things already), but he lost me after around 5 minutes of his droning. He lost me at hello. Hehe. Partly because of his voice, and also partly because he was talking about something that was not very relevant to me.

I do hope that priests realize that they have a captive audience every Sunday who are willing to listen to them and willing to give them their undivided attention. I see the homily as a real opportunity to change people’s lives or at least to make people reflect. The best homilies are the ones we talk about after the mass. And it is real opportunity lost every time priests do not prepare. Or when they talk above our heads, or when they pepper their homilies with SHOULDS and MUSTS.

And we also know if a priest does not pray. Somehow, it comes out in the homily.

Anyway, afterwards, I reflected on the gospel and came up with an alternative homily. For the information of those who are reading AngPeregrino.com for the first time, I used to give homilies in my “past life”. Here is a respite from the mundane and day to day musings of someone who is caught in the corporate jungle.

Let’s reflect on the gospel:

I love the fact that if you really think about it, the parables of Jesus were kinda weird. For example, the parable of the weeds among the wheat talks about two sowers—God and the devil—who get into a planting contest: God planted good wheat; the devil planted bad weed. And Jesus is basically saying at the end of the parable, “let’s see who wins…” Will it be God or the devil? Exciting!

The parable of the sower on the other hand, talked about a very weird (or stupid) farmer who wasted so much seed because he tried to sow it on rocky ground and thorns, and on the path where the birds can eat the seeds before they can take root.

Further on, we have the parable of the treasure in the field, where a man finds a treasure in a field that is not his own. What’s weird is that he re-buries the treasure after finding it, then sells everything he has, in order to buy that field. He probably wanted to make everything legal by buying the field.

The pearl of great price has more or less the same story: man finds beautiful pearl. Man sells all he has. Man buys pearl. And for what reason? Well, he loves pearls. Just that. Weird.

We respect the parables so much that when we hear it, we find nothing wrong with it. But imagine yourself being told these stories when Jesus was alive. They were weird stories.

And yet, some weirdness is asked if we want to prove a point. Some weirdness is asked to make sure we pause and take notice. Some weirdness is asked to tell a truth about life.

Let’s take for example the parable of the sower of the seeds.

A pastor named Bausch once asked: Who was Mozart’s piano teacher? Who was Albert Eintein’s science teacher in 3rd Grade? Let me add to his questions: Who was Joseph Ratzinger’s religion teacher in 4th Grade? Who was Michael Jordan’s basketball coach in high school? Who was Oprah’s speech teacher? Or Manny Pacquiao’s amateur boxing coach? Who planted seeds of future greatness?

And here is where the weird parable makes a good point. What are we planting in our children, our friends, our students, our co-workers, our classmates right now, that might seem like sowing seeds on footpaths and thorny bushes?

Boris Yeltsin, the man who brought down communism in the former USSR, was once asked what gave him the courage to stand firm. He credited the electrician from Poland, Lech Walesa, who started the downfall of communism in Poland. When Walesa was interviewed and asked what inspired him he said it was the civil rights movement in the United States led by Martin Luther King. Well, when Martin Luther King was interviewed years before and was asked what inspired him, he said it was the courage of one black woman, Rosa Parks, who refused to move to the backseat of the bus.

Is it too much of a stretch then, to say that a brave little black woman who refused to go to the back of the bus brought about the downfall of communism in Russia?!

Seeds are like that.

And that is the lesson for us. How valuable the little things we do, because they have the capacity to influence the people we know and even those we do not know. Never underestimate your power to plant seeds in people—even if it seems like you’re wasting a lot of seed. When you’re planting seeds, what is asked is fidelity and not success. Success will come later; and sometimes, you will not see the results of your planting. In the same way that Mozart’s teacher probably never heard a single concerto that he made.

So who was Einstein’s grade three science teacher? Who taught Mozart how to play the piano? Who taught Da Vinci how to draw stick figures when he was young? I do not know, but we’re all eternally grateful.

Who has seeded you, made you what you are now? And whom are you seeding, quietly but effectively?

Only you know the answer to that.

I’d like to end with another weird, but beautiful, story. The story goes that upon Jesus’ arrival in heaven after his crucifixion and resurrection, a vast host of angels greeted him. Archangels, angels, seraphims and cherubims were all there to welcome back the Son of God. After the formalities, they asked him who he had left behind on earth to finish the work he had begun.

Jesus replied, “Well, just a small group of men and women who love me.”

“That’s all?” asked the angels, astonished. “What if this tiny group should fail?”

Then Jesus smiled and replied, “I have no other plans.”

We are here. And we plant seeds.

He has no other plan.

1) Bread and Fishes
2) Real Greatness
3) An Ode to the Humanity of Heroes
4) The Gospel According to the Matrix