Using the best seeds doesn’t always guarantee the best plants. An older Italian gentleman straight from Italy gave me these amazing tomato seeds that he claimed produced the best tomatoes ever grown. Without doubt, the fruit he shared with me was a testament to that fact. These tomatoes were amazing! I couldn’t wait until the next growing season to plant these seeds and harvest my own tomatoes. The whole experiment ended up a failure. I did everything the gentleman said, but my fruit didn’t even come close. What happened? At first I was perplexed, then some years later the light dawned. The problem wasn’t the seeds, it was the soil!
 
You cannot sow seeds in any old place and in a haphazard way and expect them to be at their best. It doesn’t work that way. Planting the seeds is the easiest part. Preparing the soil is the challenge. Tilling, mulching, enriching, and building up the nutrients are all required for good fruit. Then after the seeds are planted, more care is required in order to maintain that healthy, nutrient rich environment for those seeds to sprout, grow, and flourish. God happily sows the seeds of his Word. What do we do with them?
 
If we expect to be a passive bystander and have good fruit magically grow, we are mistaken. Bearing the good fruit of God’s Word requires preparation and work. We have to cultivate the soil of our lives so that those seeds can find a proper home. This one thing alone takes a great deal of patience, time, and effort. What kind of preparation have we put into our lives so that we can be a recipient of God’s seed? It takes a great deal of soul-searching and ego-checking to properly prepare. God is the ever faithful and persistent sower. If the seeds do not bear fruit the first time, God will come back time and time again, giving it another try.
 
If we have created a suitable bed for sowing, then once the seed is sown, we must properly maintain them. What is our maintenance plan for the seeds of God’s Word? We need not only a source for water but a watering schedule. We need to weed, aerate the soil, nurture the young plants, protect them, and provide proper nutrients. What does our spiritual maintenance plan look like? If we have done all things well, imagine what the seeds of God’s Word could produce in us!
 
©LPi

We are all familiar with the refrain, “You have put on Christ. In him you have been baptized. Alleluia, alleluia!” In Baptism, we “put on” Christ. In putting on Christ, we put on all that Christ is and represents: hope, faith, and love. We are no longer bound to the sins and failures of the flesh, that part of us that resists God and relies exclusively on human means. It also means that we are not in debt to our past, complete with its sins, failures, regrets, fears, and unfulfilled dreams. There is always hope. In putting on Christ, we put on God’s vision for the world, for all of His children and for us. We have been given a road map to guide our paths and a blueprint to follow for our life’s journey.
 
There is no need for regret, and we are not tethered to our past. Is there anything in your past that you regret? Any decision or memory that continues to haunt you? We have all made mistakes, and we have this uncanny ability to continue beating ourselves up over things we can no longer do anything about, except learn from them. To put on Christ means that I can now bring God’s unconditional love to my hurtful memories and sinful choices. With each new moment and every new choice, I can start clean and live in freedom.
 
Imagine adults when the disciples were preaching and baptizing. They came to baptism not really knowing who they were, with pasts that were broken, seeking to live the joy of the Gospel they heard spoken to them and wanting the love they saw witnessed in the lives of those who believed. What tremendous celebrations their baptisms must have been! They could now have the support of a community, full participation in the sacraments of the church, focus for their disordered lives, consolation, healing, and an understanding of what life is really all about.
 
Our lives are meant to be celebrations of the Spirit we have received in Baptism. How does that joy get expressed in and through you? When we truly understand that we have put on Christ, our burdens can become much lighter. It is odd that so many Christians look like they are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if those weights could be lifted and joy experienced!
 
©LPi

When we were baptized, we were baptized into Christ’s death. Take a moment to ponder these profound words. We were baptized into death. In every sense of the word, we are asked to die. This is not just about our final death but about daily deaths due to inconvenience, discomfort, pain, loss, or others’ needs. This is an incredible epiphany given the way we very often approach our lives. We do everything to avoid death, let alone encounter it! Many avoid pain, discomfort, inconvenience, uneasiness, change, interference, and suffering of any kind. We put a lot of energy into finding the easiest and least inconvenient way through many things. Even holding the door open for a stranger or saying hello to someone in the store can be major undertakings.
 
We are called to die. One of the biggest wake-up calls we can have is realizing that life is not about us! There are millions of other people sharing life on this planet with whom I have a relationship. Does my life celebrate those relationships? The most distracting question we can ask is, “What do I want to do?” The more focused, faith-filled question is, “What do I need to do?” What I need to do may not be what I want to do. However, asking this question more frequently will teach us how to more purposefully and intentionally live so we can be a life giving vessel for others. When we learn to live more sacrificially, to put the needs of others before our own, and to not always seek our own self-interest, we become aware of what baptism into Christ’s death is really all about. These are the roots of virtue and the seedbed for justice, tolerance, solidarity, love, and peace.
 
Learning how to accept all the “small deaths” and sacrifices life calls us to teaches us how to approach our final death. All deaths ask us to empty ourselves into something or someone else. Whether we empty ourselves into the heart and soul of another human being or empty ourselves into God at the moment of our final death, new life is always received and nurtured. A heart that exclusively seeks its own interest is a heart that is closed to love. A heart that pours itself out to others and is content with being emptied is a heart that has been touched by and open to mercy. It is a heart that overflows with joy.
 
©LPi

There are many things of which we can be afraid: being rebuked, rejection, anger, being challenged, having to defend ourselves, standing alone, insecurity, failure, and even death. For some, identifying and overcoming their fears is a daunting task. Regardless of how much they may want to break the cycle of fear, they find that they remain close friends with old and dysfunctional behavioral habits and norms. Maybe what they really fear is change. There are many who gravitate to the familiar and comfortable, and find safety and security in doing so, even if they remain mired in mediocrity. Human beings have to learn that there is life beyond the “what has always been” and that happiness and depth are possible when old structures and systems have to be left behind.
 
Can you leave the near and dear, the comfortable and familiar, the safe and secure, and discover new opportunities? The shear thought of doing so can bring on feelings of apprehension, intense anger, resentment, defensiveness, reluctance, resistance, and even apathy. If we have to be responsible for making the change, cowardice can creep in. If someone else is to blame for making the change, any number of possible negative reactions are possible. In the end, only one thing is required and that is God. If I can rely on and deepen my relationship with God, especially in the Eucharist along with a community of believers, then little else is of great concern. We have to figure out what is really important. It is not always what we think.
 
The Gospel calls us to stretch ourselves and try new things, not to remain stuck and stagnant in familiar ways. We are asked to live life more deliberately, radically, and intentionally. We are asked to leave the familiar behind and learn to live with changing, and often limiting, human structures. We cannot get too caught up in the physical, ideological, or structural systems we are used to. The Holy Spirit always leads and guides us. If we trust this, we will find ourselves doing things we never thought we could do. Always seek the path to joy and love. They keep us from falling victim to our fears and from seeking the nostalgic crutches we think we need to achieve a sense of well-being and happiness.
 
©LPi