Seeds of Justice
June 16, 2024
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
Ezekiel 17: 22-23; Ps. 65; 2 Cor 9: 5-15; Mark 4: 1-9, 26-33
Many of you probably know of the beautiful life and legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, who worked for 40 years in the Amazon to help defend the land and indigenous small farmers, in opposition to large landowners, multi-national corporations, and others who wished to destroy them. Like Jesus, and many other justice activists he inspired, she made a lot of enemies in the course of her compassionate work. She was martyred on Feb. 12, 2005, by assassins hired by corrupt ranchers in Brazil, as she was on her way to aid a family whose house and farm had been burned down.
At Sister Dorothy’s funeral, one of the peasant farmers in attendance stood up and said, “Today we are not going to bury Sister Dorothy. We are going to plant her.” They understood that resurrection means following in the footsteps of a saint like Sister Dorothy, keeping her work alive by carrying it on. She had planted many seeds, and her community cultivated them by energetically continuing her justice efforts.
If we look at our first reading today, from Ezekiel, in context, we see that the great eagle symbolizes God, and the planting of the cedar shoot is a metaphor for the establishment of God’s people in a new land. It is a prophetic command to us and to all to help provide homes for those who need them, and to stand up for those whose homelands are taken from them, or whose heritage and culture are threatened.
Paul, in our second reading, from Second Corinthians, sends us a similar message of encouragement to help those in need. The letter this passage came from was sent to gentile Christians in Corinth, encouraging them to help the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and to do so with humility and gratitude. “Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully,” Paul advises them, and us. “You are glorifying God by living out the gospel of Christ through the generosity of your contribution to them and to all others.” We are called to bountifully sow support for those in need-- even those, maybe especially those, outside our cultural and faith traditions.
Jesus calls us to fight for the poor by generously waging peace as well. In today’s gospel, he calls us to be like mustard seeds, growing up to provide shelter for many. Be like the good soil in which the seed grows readily, he tells us—deep, fertile, hospitable to new life for those whose previous life may have been destroyed. But he also reminds us to ground our work for the poor and homeless in prayer, and in humility before the endless loving creativity of God. Like the farmer who plants the seed and then harvests the grain without understanding how God makes it grow, we must try to work always in concert with God’s plan of home and livelihood for all, without judgement and without prejudice.
Let us take the teachings in these readings to heart, and do what we can to be seeds of justice in this troubled world. Let us work to grow into the kind of strong trees that can provide wood for homes for those who need them. Let us humbly give up our lives as seeds to live as food, medicine, and shelter.
June 16, 2024
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
Ezekiel 17: 22-23; Ps. 65; 2 Cor 9: 5-15; Mark 4: 1-9, 26-33
Many of you probably know of the beautiful life and legacy of Sister Dorothy Stang, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, who worked for 40 years in the Amazon to help defend the land and indigenous small farmers, in opposition to large landowners, multi-national corporations, and others who wished to destroy them. Like Jesus, and many other justice activists he inspired, she made a lot of enemies in the course of her compassionate work. She was martyred on Feb. 12, 2005, by assassins hired by corrupt ranchers in Brazil, as she was on her way to aid a family whose house and farm had been burned down.
At Sister Dorothy’s funeral, one of the peasant farmers in attendance stood up and said, “Today we are not going to bury Sister Dorothy. We are going to plant her.” They understood that resurrection means following in the footsteps of a saint like Sister Dorothy, keeping her work alive by carrying it on. She had planted many seeds, and her community cultivated them by energetically continuing her justice efforts.
If we look at our first reading today, from Ezekiel, in context, we see that the great eagle symbolizes God, and the planting of the cedar shoot is a metaphor for the establishment of God’s people in a new land. It is a prophetic command to us and to all to help provide homes for those who need them, and to stand up for those whose homelands are taken from them, or whose heritage and culture are threatened.
Paul, in our second reading, from Second Corinthians, sends us a similar message of encouragement to help those in need. The letter this passage came from was sent to gentile Christians in Corinth, encouraging them to help the poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, and to do so with humility and gratitude. “Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully,” Paul advises them, and us. “You are glorifying God by living out the gospel of Christ through the generosity of your contribution to them and to all others.” We are called to bountifully sow support for those in need-- even those, maybe especially those, outside our cultural and faith traditions.
Jesus calls us to fight for the poor by generously waging peace as well. In today’s gospel, he calls us to be like mustard seeds, growing up to provide shelter for many. Be like the good soil in which the seed grows readily, he tells us—deep, fertile, hospitable to new life for those whose previous life may have been destroyed. But he also reminds us to ground our work for the poor and homeless in prayer, and in humility before the endless loving creativity of God. Like the farmer who plants the seed and then harvests the grain without understanding how God makes it grow, we must try to work always in concert with God’s plan of home and livelihood for all, without judgement and without prejudice.
Let us take the teachings in these readings to heart, and do what we can to be seeds of justice in this troubled world. Let us work to grow into the kind of strong trees that can provide wood for homes for those who need them. Let us humbly give up our lives as seeds to live as food, medicine, and shelter.
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