Fifteenth Ordinary

Matthew 13: 3 – 9

Jesus said, “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

The elderly woman down the street from us spends as much time as she can in her garden – and it shows. She can get plants to grow that none of her neighbours can. “I spend a lot of time preparing the soil,” she says. She is constantly adding yard waste and kitchen scraps to her compost bin, stirring it up, keeping it moist, making sure there’s the right mixture of “browns” and “greens” layered over one another. A few times a year she harvests the dark, rich soil at the bottom of her compost heap and spreads it around her garden where the existing soil is hard, full of clay, or rocky.

Her grandchildren come to stay with her on the weekends from time to time, and she puts them to work in the garden. They seem to enjoy it. She lets them pick flowers and place them before the small statue of Mary in the yard. While they work, she tells them stories about Saint Francis, whose statue stands across the way from Mary. At noon she sets up lunch on the patio. They all bow their heads and say a quick prayer before they devour the nice lunch that has been prepared. On Sundays she dresses them up and brings them with her to early Mass and then home for a big breakfast.

This is something new for them because I don’t believe their parents attend church too frequently and religious practice is usually an afterthought for them. But it matters to Grandma. After all, she knows how crucial it is to prepare the soil.