Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2
Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark:26-34
My Sunday Missal for this weekend is headed: The Laws of Growth. It got me thinking.
Firstly, such laws do exist and they are rather rigid. They
demand obedience - preparing the soil, planting, watering, composting, weeding,
sunlight, and so on. Farmers know all about these laws, they have an intimate
knowledge of them. And what's more, they know the exact time when all these
things should be done.
Furthermore, The Laws
of Growth, can be applied to almost anything. They apply to humans,
producing healthy children, for example - children with healthy bodies, minds,
emotions, and values. They apply also to the animal world in which every
species is governed by its own unique laws of growth.
For a politician to get ahead he must discover the laws of
growing a healthy, stable society, and a strong economy. Up till now, if the
figures can be believed, President Trump seems to be making strides in this
area; as he puts it – making America great again.
The Church, too, has laws of growth. Every diocese, every
parish, every believer is governed by them. Recently the Catholic Church in
Australia announced a Plenary Assembly which, I assume, which I hope, has the
aim of making the Catholic Church in Australia 'great again'.
So let's go to the gospel. You will notice in both parables
there is something God does and there is something we do – it's a kind of
partnership between God and us.
A man throws seed on
the land. That's our part and it includes all the necessary work we can do
to ensure that God is able to do his part. And what is God's part? Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is
awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. As every
farmer knows, it is simply beyond his capacity to make the seed grow – it grows
all by itself, or, as the gospel puts it: of
its own accord. That is God's part.
Isn't it all remarkably like the profound co-operation
between God and a husband and wife in the conception of a child?
My own reflection on this topic of the laws of growth leads
me to acknowledge that there are many, many ways to inhibit growth, to stunt
it, to destroy it, but only one way to promote it. The laws of growth are one, and they are inflexible. They demand obedience. Destruction? Well, absolutely anyone can
destroy. To put it very simply: any kid with a box of matches can destroy a
forest, a harvest, or a life.
To help you to understand what I'm going to say next I
wonder if you know people who have struggled all their life with obesity. They
have tried the banana diet and the stewed apple diet and the carb free and
sugar free and fat free diets. They have tried every single diet known to
modern man and still, fifty years later, they are still overweight. And why is
this so? Leaving aside medical conditions and genetic makeup, we can say it's
because they failed to grasp the simple laws contained in the phrases, moderate eating and regular exercise.
So now let's come back to the Church. What are the Laws of
Growth in the Church? How do we make the Church grow? The answer never varies.
In fact, it's the glue which binds the Sacred Scriptures together: orthodoxy – right teaching, right
thinking and orthopraxis – right
behaviour. When will the bishops, priests and people grasp this truth? The faith of the apostles and the Christian life which flows from it,
as it comes to us today through the bishops of the Catholic Church, is the only
law of growth we possess. There is no other. Nothing else, especially liberalism, will make us grow.
Believe as the Church believes; live as the Church lives.
Never mind the bad apples, whether they be clergy or lay. Don't be distracted by
them. Just believe what the Church believes and live the social, moral,
liturgical, spiritual life which the Church proposes for us. This is our way to
Christ and to the Father.
If the farmer plants a seed and it doesn't grow it's not
God's fault. The seed wants to grow. It is ready to grow. The farmer doesn't ask, 'How can I make it grow?' – he asks, 'What am I doing that is stopping it from growing?'
When it comes to the Plenary Assembly I hope the bishops,
too, understand that it's not God's fault the Church is in decline. The Church wants to grow. I hope they
ask, 'What have we done wrong? What are we doing that is stopping the Church from growing? How have we strayed from the laws of
growth, from orthodoxy and orthopraxis?'
