Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Every week we hear something about the fight to live our faith. Today what we hear is pure grace and that the Lord is coming and loves us without conditions and doesn’t demand anything from us. He gathers us from wherever we come with a tremendous tenderness even if we think he has forgotten us. The whole week we are absorbed in trying to be Christians, as if it were up to us. This is something horrible. We believe that we can be Christians because of our efforts. We think that we can love with our strength; that you can be faithful to your spouse because of your strength, that you can forgive your dad on your strength, that you can understand your child, that the faith you have can save you. This is a something horrible; it is a heresy called Pelagianism. A man name Pelagius started it many centuries ago who said with his efforts he can save himself. I can stop drinking, or no longer commit adultery, on my efforts. I will conquer the problem myself. They also call this Americanism; I can do it on my strength!
This is a heresy. Where is Christ then, who became a man to save us, to defeat death which overwhelms us. This gospel helps us to see the gratuitousness of God’s love. Christ comes to help you, to give you life, but we strive day after day to do it ourselves and what happens at the end of the week. You are broken, shattered because you could not love your wife, or you were unable to forgive or understand the other, you have not been generous, you cannot stop watching pornography, etc. We experience frustration. We want to be Christian, but we cannot.
This is why this gospel comes for us today, to lift your spirits. Jesus is saying, hey, remember that it is I who am with you; I will do the work; remember I am the one who makes everything. I want to enter your life to change it, to help you. He doesn’t care about what you did this week. He only thinks about loving you; he is madly in love with you, and he always returns to you as a foolish lover. I hope this word reaches you because this is what will change your heart. It is not on your efforts or mind. Jesus is saying, I will do it. Sometimes we try so hard to do things that we get a hernia and have to have surgery, but in matters of faith, he will do the work.
Many times, we say but I go to Mass, and I say the rosary, and I do a million good things and my life doesn’t change. Don’t blame him because the problem is you are doing it on your own strength. The gospel makes an impressive point: the seed will sprout and grow, and he knows not how. It does it on its own accord. Even when he is sleeping the seed grows without him doing anything. It is the Lord that makes it grow. It grows in each one of us and so you can rest today.
The gospel speaks of two seeds: one that a man comes out and throws, and then the seed that represents the kingdom of God, which is a mustard seed. What is this seed? Or better said, who is this seed? It is the Lord. He is the mustard seed, the most insignificant seed that when you blow on them, they fly away. Christ has made himself the least little thing for you, for love of you. He becomes so small in order to enter you. Who is the earth in this parable? It is you and me.
God comes to sow his image in you. How wonderful this is; he wants to put Christ in you, and you don’t need to do anything. It is good that you make a retreat but don’t think that a retreat, even every year, will make you a saint. To be a Christian is a way; it takes a lifetime. Don’t think we can get to a point and say, ok, I made it, I can rest. The seed is thrown and has to be broken so that it can come out. If the grain of wheat does not fall into the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. The grain dies in me, in my earth so that he can live in me. He can live in my weaknesses, my arrogance, my lust, my whatever. This is me; this is my land and Christ enters it and is not disgusted. He is not afraid to enter me.
Christ does this without demands that you have to be good. Christ came for all, even the high priests and Pharisees. He comes for all who welcome him, but not all do so. You know the parable of the sower who went out to sow and some seed fell on the road, some among the thorns, some on the rocks and some on the good soil. Not all of us welcome the seed! The humble, the poor, the sinner welcomes him. He comes to the one who is in need. To the one who needs to be loved by Christ. Is this what you want or would you rather love your job or your money.
The devil told me for a long time and still today that God doesn’t love you. When you get these kind of thoughts, you think you are speaking to yourself, but you are actually speaking to the devil. I thought I had a bad life and I believed it. Then something happened to help me to see that this was a lie. I am a very sinful, selfish person but I see the love of God in my life now. The devil still deceives me, but I have enough proof of God’s love for me.
The Lord has to prepare the earth to receive the seed. If I did not go through this suffering, if I thought my life was perfect, I would never have listened to this good news. If I had not believed that no one loved me, I would not have needed the love of God. Oh, happy fault, we say at Easter, that deserved so great a savior. When we have this experience then a window is opened, and the view is breathtaking. God is an artist and from the evil he brings out something beautiful. He allows everything for your good. Whatever it is, loneliness, a death of a sibling, a sin, he can draw something beautiful from that event of death.
A Christian lives in this certainty, that he/she is loved to the core, and this gradually begins to change their life. God did not call you to be good. To be in the Church you don’t need to be good, to believe. There are many people who don’t believe, and they are better than me. Many who never go to church are better than me. We are here not to be good; we are here to love, to be another Christ, to give your life for the other. This is a great mission, a very great mission to be the salt of the earth. The world needs to be salted and the mission of a Christian is to do this, not because he is good but only because he has Christ within. And then he can love. A Christian doesn’t reject others; he loves them and therefore attracts others.
He is like the mustard seed that springs up and grows and becomes a huge tree where all the birds can rest and find shelter and shade. Who are these people? It is your mom, your uncle, your kids, your grandchildren. They will rest in you. Christians attract others. If you don’t, it is because you are not Christian. It is not about singing in Latin that attracts others, and I like Latin, but it is love that attracts.
How will you save your child? When he sees that you are faithful to his mom, that you are happy with your life. That they see that you are willing to have more kids, even four or five. That you trust in the providence of God. A child or a friend is not saved because you are always pushing him/her, but you love them, that you willingly take his place and his sufferings. Don’t push him but give him a word from God, a word of love. This is your mission. A Christian is not the good one but one who gives light in this increasingly dark world.