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Homily stories

08 Oct 2017 - Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

A couple years ago, I decided to take up gardening. Tricky since I live in an apartment on the 11th floor of a high-rise in Uptown Chicago. There’s no green space in sight, but I have very sunny windowsills, so I began growing herbs and then moved on to tomatoes and lemons. But since I still really didn’t know what I was doing, I joined a community garden—a nearby vacant lot turned into a nature oasis—to learn. I spend most Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings at Ginkgo Organic Gardens, which grows fresh produce for the homeless and low-income people in my neighborhood. We grow about 1,500 pounds of vegetables, herbs, and fruit each year and donate them to local nonprofits, many of which serve those with HIV for whom proper nutrition is very important. I admit I joined Ginkgo for selfish reasons: I wanted the educational experience my fellow gardeners provide me. But the most important thing I learned is accountability: to the people who eat the food, of course, but also to the very plants (They depend on me!), and by extension to the city (It needs this garden and others like it!) and to the Earth (We’ve got to take good care of it if it’s going to take care of us!). There’s so much more to creation’s amazing chain reactions than watering seeds in the dirt.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

accountability Creation gardening

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04 Feb 2018 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

As a young girl she always tried to avoid getting drafted to work in her mother’s garden. She disliked the planting, the pruning, the watering. She disliked the weeding the most. And so she would rush off to play with her friends. When she became a young adult, she began to see the beauty of the garden. Not that she had any desire to work in it, but she could begin to appreciate what beauty it brought to all who passed by. And then her mother got sick. It was then that she came to recognize within her, the strength, confidence, and character that her mother had so gently planted, watered, pruned, and weeded. Having been so well served, the young woman’s own desire to serve blossomed. Thus, tending the garden was no longer work for “hirelings,” as Sunday’s reading from Job has it. And so she gladly and enthusiastically planted, and pruned, and watered, and even weeded the garden outside her mother’s bedroom window, in hopes that it would strengthen her mother, and cheer her. But most of all, as a blessed act of sheer gratitude.

Authors Tom McGrath

gardening hirelings gratitude

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Homily stories

12 Jul 2020 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

I planted my first-ever garden. I have no idea what I’m doing. I searched online for “what plants grow like crazy.” Bishop’s weed. “Spreads quickly and difficult to eradicate,” the description said. Sounds like good ground cover to me, and it’s prettier than the name implies. I already have a rose of Sharon (of Song of Solomon fame) and a burning bush (which turns bright red in the fall), so I decided to stick with the religious theme and added in lily of the valley, also known as Mary’s tears and a symbol of purity and humility. Finally, I planted two bleeding hearts to represent the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts of Jesus and Mary. With so many allusions to my faith already, I think a statue of Saint Francis of Assisi would be overkill! All of the plants I chose are hardy, the kinds of plants Jesus was talking about in his parable about seed that bears fruit. I relate more to the giant unruly lilac along my alley. It has an invasive oak growing up the middle that I can’t get rid of no matter how much I hack at it, and it hasn’t bloomed in two years because of unusually long, cold springs. I wanted to rip the whole thing out, but my mom, an experienced gardener, advised that I give it another year. I trust that God is as patient with me.

Authors Jennifer Tomshack

parable of the sower seeds gardens gardening patience

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19 Jul 2020 - Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

My wife and I were young and naïve when we bought our first house. We moved into it in early spring, and soon discovered that the woman who owned the house before us had been a wonderful gardener. Each new day of spring seemed to reveal another flower, plant, or shrub coming to life. Luckily, the neighbors living on either side of our house were patient with us. These elderly couples were themselves great gardeners and, after watching us mishandle the garden chores for a while, began to offer gentle advice and instruction. My favorite memory is the day Olga leaned over the fence and said with a kind smile, “You know, that tall plant you keep watering every day? That one’s a weed.” And not only was I feeding the weeds, I was also yanking plants that, if they had been left to grow, would have blossomed into brilliant flowers. Today’s gospel talks about weeds and wheat and how to handle them. We all need spiritual neighbors who have learned a thing or two about the weeds and the wheat and how they crop up in our lives. Listen to the people who know. Cultivate sources of wisdom in your life—the sacraments, good spiritual reading, daily prayer—and pay attention to them. Because life isn’t just a bed of roses.

Authors Tom McGrath

Wisdom gardening separate the wheat from the weeds

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16 Jul 2023 - Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

If you're a farmer or gardener and you checked to see if the corn you planted at winter’s end was at least “knee-high by the 4th of July,” it will surely be ready for your table by next month. It will join the abundant tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and other veggies that grace your every meal. But look at your garden and compare it to the one Jesus describes in his parable of the sower. Your garden is neat and well-defined, each row straight and true. The earth has been carefully prepared and each seed has been thoughtfully planted. There are no rocks, no weeds, no one is allowed to walk on it, and the birds are kept away by a scarecrow. The sower, on the other hand, tosses seeds willy-nilly and doesn’t seem to care where they land. Rocks, weeds, a path are all part of his garden. And crows are welcome. What could he be thinking? Maybe that’s the difference between the way we do things and the way God manages our world. There are lots of things we wouldn’t allow if we were in charge of creation, but the Lord seems content to include everything. And his sense of order is far different from ours. We like everything neat and straight, while the Lord doesn’t seem to have any edges. But what appears haphazard to us is the vast and infinite plan of a loving Creator.

Authors Father Paul Boudreau

gardening gardeners parable of the sower

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04 Feb 2024 - Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

As a young girl, she always tried to avoid getting drafted to work in her mother’s garden. She disliked the planting, the pruning, the watering. She disliked the weeding the most. And so she would rush off to play with her friends. When she became a young adult, she began to see the beauty of the garden. Not that she had any desire to work in it, but she could begin to appreciate what beauty it brought to all who passed by. And then her mother got sick. It was then that she came to recognize within her, the strength, confidence, and character that her mother had so gently planted, watered, pruned, and weeded. Having been so well served, the young woman’s own desire to serve blossomed. Thus, tending the garden was no longer work for “hirelings,” as Sunday’s reading from Job has it. And so she gladly and enthusiastically planted, and pruned, and watered, and even weeded the garden outside her mother’s bedroom window, in hopes that it would strengthen her mother, and cheer her. But most of all, as a blessed act of sheer gratitude.

Authors Tom McGrath

gardens gardening gratitude

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