Sunday, 6/17/12
The readings today use the metaphor of seeds bursting into life to describe the faith taking root and blooming in our hearts.
The Gospel takes special note of God’s mysterious hand in farming. The farmer may speak of how he plants and grows crops, but he is in bed snoring away while God does the real farming. God causes the elaborate DNA he has imbedded in each to come to life and replicate itself over and over. It all takes place in accord with God’s precise, orderly plan.
Scientists over the last century have gotten a grasp on the genomes of wheat and rice seeds. They have come to understand something of God’s intricate engineering in plant life. They hope to win the Nobel Prize in recognition of the mystery of nature that they have uncovered.
They would do better to imitate England’s King Henry V. When his troops won the victory at Agincourt he said the credit all belonged to God. He commanded them all to sing the Non Nobis, which goes “Not to us, not to us, Lord. But to your name, your name let glory be given.
Non nobis, Domini, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.
Permit me another classical reference. Over and over lately I have been repeating the words of Beatrice in the Divine Comedy. She was explaining the way the earth is made in God’s image. She said that the likeness of nature to God consists above all in such hidden strings of order that govern the germination of seeds while farmer snores away. Here is that great line of hers:
All things among themselves
Possess an order,
And this order is the form
That makes the universe like God.
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