WHAT WE DO
What we do is very little, but it is like the boy with a few loaves and fishes: Christ took that little and increased it. He will do the rest. What we do is so little we may seem to be constantly failing, but so did Christ fail. He met with apparent failure on the cross. But unless the seed fall into the earth and die, there is no harvest. And why must we see the results? Our work is to sow. Another generation will be reaping the harvest. (Dorothy Day)
That is a really good question. Why should we be able to see the results? We would be wasting a lot of valuable time worrying about the results instead of moving forward and doing what we do.
Our work is to sow. That’s such a simple phrase to encompass a life’s work. Once we dedicate ourselves to following Christ, it does become our life’s work. Consider the original 12 Apostles, then the many disciples, St. Paul, Barnabas, Mark, Luke, Priscilla and her husband Aquila, Timothy and his mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois, all who took on this work for the rest of their lives. What they did probably seemed little to them. They talked about Jesus. They encouraged people to see the beauty of his message and they helped wherever they were needed. The result was the foundation of the Church. I’m quite sure they didn’t know that.
Just exactly what would sowing look like? It’s when someone sneezes and you say,” God Bless You” and you mean it. You stop someone who wants to spread gossip. You avoid joining in any conversation that denigrates someone’s character. You smile even when you don’t feel like it and you help whenever you can for whomever needs it. You forgive. You praise. You say, “I love you”. You speak with courage in the sure knowledge that God supports you.
The most important thing you can do be effective, is get to know Jesus better. Approach him in prayer the way you would approach any friend. Never think God is far away. Get over the idea that God must be called to attention or worse, nagged to hear our requests. Jesus said it and it bears repeating; “The Father knows what you need before you ask.”
The farmer does not usually plant each seed individually, but scatters it, confident that seed falling on good soil will thrive. So that is how we sow the Word. Throughout Scripture, both Hebrew and New Testaments, God assured us that we must not worry about what we are to say, because the Spirit is always with us. In order to be successful at sowing, we must trust the Spirit. What happens after that is up to God.
Blessings,
Carol Lemelin OPA
