Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time: Spiritual Growth

We just hosted two graduation ceremonies here at the parish. On Thursday morning, our Parish School’s 8th graders had their baccalaureate Mass, coming to school one last day in their uniforms. Then in the evening we had their graduation ceremony, in which they were dressed up. Kids in their uniforms in the morning, only a few hours later, looking like young men and women.

Then on Friday, we hosted a ceremony for the homeschool community’s high school graduates. Likewise, with hair styled for the occasion, dressed nicer than usual, and carrying themselves in a way that that reveals them to be the young adults that they are.

Having recently celebrated Mother’s Day and soon approaching Father’s Day, I can only imagine what it’s like for you as parents: that with each passing day, it’s easy to overlook the changes in your son or daughter. Occasionally it hits you: how much they’ve developed and evolved. I’ve heard parents describe their amazement in those moments, accompanied by an unexpected sadness. But doesn’t it seem that so much of their development happens without our awareness in the moment? Suddenly, they’re grown up.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a parable that speaks to this reality: the mystery that takes place when a simple seed is planted in the ground. Beneath the soil, beyond our seeing, development and evolution is taking place.

It made me think of times that I speak with someone who is desiring to be alive in their faith, to grow, and yet they realize they continue to struggle with a particular type(s) of sin. I find sometimes that they get discouraged, wondering if they’re actually making any traction at all.

I ask them to not be discouraged. To help them, I often ask this question: If you look back to six month ago, or a year ago, or even think back to two years ago: have you made progress in that area? Does that particular habit of sin have at least a little less hold on you? Are you managing it a little more? The answer isn’t always yes, but most of the time, I find it is: Yes, I’ve definitely made improvement.

That’s spiritual growth that has taken place, without their even knowing it. While it’s important to see ourselves in the present, and to do so with honest self-reflection, I believe it’s also important to ‘zoom-out’ if you will, and get a sense of the movement, the growth that has taken place over time.

And by the way, we can also make movements in the opposite direction: We can be introduced to something new that distracts us from the work of the spiritual life; we can gradually develop destructive habits; we can become lazy and make excuses. Often it comes with a significant change in our lives, when our patterns of living get disrupted and interrupted.

I think back to a year ago. In the confessional, I was hearing more and more how people were struggling spiritually. You may recall, I cited three principal spiritual struggles at work against us as we were confined to our homes for those months.

First, there were the feelings of loss: not being able to see people that matter to us, the cancellation of vacations and important events. The loss of physical contact and seeing each other’s faces. So many losses.

Second, there was the loss of structure and schedule to our day-to-day living. The distinction between work-and-home or school-and-home was gone, and the weird way that each absorbed the other made each day feel like nebulous and lacking definition.

Third, we were stuck in uncertainty for so long, of how we would emerge from the effects of the pandemic. Will we always work from home? Will we take vacation next year? Will we ever be able to see each other’s faces or shake hands? Will there be a vaccine?

Last year I heard many people speak of their regression and in talking with them, any of these reasons tended to be at work.

I remind us of Jesus’ point in the Gospel: it’s God who is principally doing the work in our lives, often without our knowing it—our task is to cooperate. And to the extent we cooperate and open ourselves up to his promptings and guidance, we are exercising rightly ordered human freedom.

For many of us, having been stuck, maybe it’s time to start moving forward again in the spiritual life. Perhaps fear has kept us at bay and disengaged. I get it, but I believe it’s safe to reengage and to start gaining some traction—and for some of us, to stop making excuses or casting blame.

And let’s be honest, there are some of us, well into our adult years, who have not been engaged or moved forward since we were children. We remain at a child-level of understanding about God, our true selves, and the life to which is calling us. And most likely, in such cases, we’re just hanging-on to this faith by a slender thread.

But you were the seed that God planted in the soil in order that you might develop into part of what is to be a beautiful garden. Look beneath the soil and self-examine: Over the past couple years has there been growth, no growth or perhaps regression? On behalf of Alex, Carlie, my brother deacons and myself and others that assist us in learning, engaging and sharing this beautiful faith—let us help you get some traction and to start moving forward again.