In the early part of the thirteenth century, Giovanni Franceso Bernardone was headed to a prosperous life as a cloth merchant in the Province of Umbria, Italy. He was headed to a life of complete self-gratification. He was a young man who loved every sort of pleasure. But Francis, as he preferred to be called, did not become a merchant. After spending a year as a military captive in nearby Perugia, Francis decided to change the course of his life. He wanted to focus on serving God and only serving God. He saw his status as part of the rising merchant class as blocking his ability to experience Jesus Christ. He gave up his possessions, his future as a merchant, and embraced poverty.
Francis attracted a few like-minded companions who joined him in courting what he called Lady Poverty. One day Francis went to pray at a rundown old chapel just outside of the city, the chapel of San Damiano. As he was praying before the icon of the crucified Jesus (we have a copy of this icon hanging at our front door), he heard a voice calling to him three times: “Francis, rebuild my Church. Francis, rebuild my Church. Francis, rebuild my Church.” Initially, Francis thought that he and his friends should rebuild the chapel of San Damiano, but as time went on, he realized that he was being called to rebuild Christ’s Church on earth.
The Chapel of San Damiano still stands outside the walls of Assisi. The cross of San Damiano has been relocated to the Basilica of Santa Clara within the city. The message that St. Francis heard is as pertinent now as it ever was, “Rebuild my Church.” That message also is addressed to us.
Are we Building the City of God on earth? We have the foundation that we need. But are we willing to do something with it? What we need is the Word of God. God pours His Word upon us; He drenches us with His Word as though we were in a rainstorm. The Prophet Isaiah says in the first reading (Isaiah 55:10-11) that this is what we need to do God’s work. He predicts that we will embrace the Everlasting Word. And he prophesied that the Word of God would be returned to God having done His will.
We want the Word of God. We want the ability to do God’s will. Every fiber of our body longs to be part of His Plan. St. Paul says in the second reading (Romans 8:18-23), that we groan within ourselves with the desire to have God in our lives, and with the desire to make God real in the lives of others. Everyone who is serious about their Christianity longs to give birth to the City. Paul uses the image of labor pains. A woman in labor experiences her whole being concentrated on giving birth. Our whole being also should focus on giving birth, giving birth to the City. And so, we groan from our inner depths. We want to make God’s City a reality in the world.
God gives us all that we need: the Word. We long to make His City a reality, we groan in labor pains, but longing is not enough. It is not enough to come off a religious experience and say, “I want to be an integral part of Jesus Christ’s solution to the world.” It is not enough to say, “I want to be united with Christ.” It is not enough to say, “I want others to be united to Christ.” We have to use the spiritual gift of the Word.
But sometimes we construct roadblocks to our embrace of the Word. The parable in the Gospel says that sometimes the Divine Sower’s seed falls on the pathways through the fields. There is no union with the Word, it is simply there, and it is lost to the birds of the sky. Sometimes we refuse to make God’s Word the guide of our lives. We refuse to delve into what God is calling us to. We know we can learn about the Lord by studying the Bible, by praying over the scripture, by keeping a union with God, but sometimes we are just too lazy to pray. We don’t make time for Him, the Love of our lives, and then we become shocked that His Presence has been stolen from us by the birds of the air. There is a war being waged for the City of God. We need to prepare for that battle. We need to pray every day in our homes as well as unite together in the Eucharist at least every week.
The parable says that sometimes the seed falls on rocky ground. It does not develop roots. This part of the parable really cuts us to the quick, because it says that the enthusiasm for the Word, the enthusiasm for the Lord, is not good enough. All those good feelings will die out with time, unless it is far more than feelings that we search for. St. Teresa of Calcutta wrote that she felt completely dry and abandoned by Christ many times throughout her life, but she never stopped proclaiming Him with her life. It is not the feelings that matter. What matters are the actions we take when we are exposed to the Word of God. If we do not change our lives after our continual encounters with Christ, then our spiritual experiences are merely feelings, moments of fleeting joy.
Sometimes the seed falls among the thickets and thorns. God’s word takes root, but other things take priority in our lives. All of us have many activities and obligations. Often, we forget that our primary responsibility is to Jesus Christ. We have been given the Word. We cannot allow the concerns around us to choke off his Presence within us. We cannot allow ourselves to become deaf to His Call to rebuild His Church.
Sometimes the thickets and thorns are the vices of an immoral society. Drugs, alcohol, pornography, perverse societal norms, other areas of immorality, all are thorns that choke our grasp of the Word of God. When we fight immorality, we are not just avoiding sin, we are allowing God’s Word to grow in the world.
But, thank God, there are times, many times, that God’s seed falls on good soil. There are many people who care for the Presence of the Lord, who are more concerned with His City than their own emotional feelings of His Presence. There are many people who refuse to let anything the world throws at them destroy the mission they have been entrusted with by the Divine Sower.
We can be these people, you and I. We can be the people who are dedicated to the City of God. We can rebuild His Church.
We need to nurture the seeds falling on good soil. We need to cultivate the Presence of the Lord in our lives and serve God no matter whether we feel His Presence today as we did last week, last month, last year, or whenever we were given the gift of a spiritual high. We can fight off anything that tries to destroy our determination to live in union with Jesus Christ. We can be the good soil that returns to the Lord more fruit than we could ever have imagined.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!