Father Donald Senior, C.P.

June 17: 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thursday, June 7, 2018

Force of Nature

Ez 17:22-24; Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16; 2 Cor 5:6-10; Mk 4:26-34

Thomas Berry was a remarkable scholar who in his later years became a leading voice in alerting the world to the threats to our environment. A fellow Passionist priest, he began his ministry as a philosopher and a missionary to China. Later he turned his brilliant mind to environmental studies, underscoring the intimate connection of human life to the earth and to the universe itself.  

As an admirer of Father Berry, I did have a few occasions to debate with him about the Bible and its appreciation of nature. He confessed that when he was in the seminary long before the Second Vatican Council, his courses on Scripture were deficient. His main interaction with the Bible in his writings was to take exception to those interpretations of Genesis that emphasized human domination over nature and therefore seemed to provide a warrant for its exploitation.  

I tried to point out, besides this being a wrong interpretation of Genesis, that throughout the Bible one discovers a long love affair with the beauty and sacredness of our earth as a creation of God.

I wish I could discuss with Father Berry the readings for this Sunday. Here we see in full bloom the Bible’s embrace of the earth and its vitality. One feature of the Bible that I find so compelling is its rich language and abundant metaphors and symbols. 

Time and again, the biblical authors turn to a contemplation of nature to find a way of speaking of the impact of God’s presence. We see it in the first reading today from the prophet Ezekiel, much of whose writing attempts to restore Israel’s hope and energy in the wake of the Babylonian exile — a time when the fundamental institutions of Israel had been destroyed: the temple, the monarchy, the priesthood, Israel’s birthright to its own land.  

Ezekiel uses the metaphor of transplanting a tree; the Lord God takes a “tender shoot” from a tall cedar and plants it on a high mountain. From that small plant “a majestic cedar” would grow and “birds of every kind” would dwell in its shade. An Israel restored through God’s love and power is that new plant: “As I, the Lord, have spoken, so will I do.”

In the response psalm for today, the psalmist refers to the “just one,” the person of integrity, flourishing “like the palm tree, the cedar of Lebanon shall he grow” and “bear fruit even in old age, vigorous and sturdy shall they be.” Those who strive to do God’s will are like “trees” that are “planted in the house of the Lord” and ones that “shall flourish in the courts of our God.”

As we see in the Gospel selection for today, Jesus, too, characteristically turned to the beauty and vitality of nature in his teaching. Here we have two brief parables of Jesus found in Mark’s Gospel, each of which draws on a comparison to nature to express Jesus’ conviction that the power of God would, without fail, bring forth new life.  

In the first, the man scatters seed in his field and then goes home to sleep. While he sleeps the seed marvelously goes to work “sprouting and growing” in a way the farmer does not even know about. “Of its own accord” the earth brings forth a harvest: “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”

The second parable is the famous comparison about the tiny mustard seed. It is, in fact, minuscule, but, nevertheless, grows into a large plant with branches “so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” Mark’s Gospel assures us, “with many such parables [Jesus] spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.”

These nature metaphors from Ezekiel and Jesus assume the beauty of the earth and reflect awareness of how nature works. More importantly these metaphors help the Scriptures convey a fundamental perspective of our faith. 

God brings life and vitality. Even at times when the ordinary cares of life may overwhelm us, God will not abandon us.

Topics:

  • scripture

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