Springtime: Planting the seeds

The song in my head went: “I watch the sunrise, lighting the sky, warming the earth below. And on that morning bright though it be, I feel your shadows near me. But you are always close to me”

I was particularly blessed to be able to go on a flower-viewing pilgrimage up the Cape West Coast in September. “You should stop and smell the flowers”, one is told so often when living a hectic life, as most of us do. Well those wild spring flowers don’t smell much, but the sight is unbelievable.

Of course, I was told I had missed the best part, or you should see them in Lutzville or further north. However, there I was high up on the hill with a 180-degree vista of the calmest of bays, St Helena Bay. I had got up early to watch the sunrise and as I walked along what caught my eye were some rather incongruous streets signs. STOP it said on the pole outlined against the vista of the bay. BEWARE OF BUMPS IN THE ROAD was on the opposite corner, next to a sign that read SOLD.

So I reflected what does all that say about my mission in life, my mission for families, anyone’s mission, for and in family life, anyone of those that work to provide, protect, nurture, support?

As October is Mission month, we are reminded with gratitude of the missionaries and their important contribution in bringing the faith to so many mission countries. But who carries on their mission of passing on the faith? There are priests’ increasingly fewer. Some sisters work in parishes as well as schools and hospitals. Deacons, mostly married men, assist priests mainly in parish duties, especially in places where one priest might be in charge of two or three parishes and some outstations too.

Only a very small percentage of Catholic children attend Catholic schools and the schools do not regard passing on of the faith to be their responsibility. Catechists teach over 90% of Catholic children. But all of that is not passing on of the faith. That task is the right, privilege and responsibility of parents, every day, all day.

We can’t send our children home after a class, or consider our job done at the end of a year. Our task continues for life, whether we like it or not, whether we do it well or not. That is the rather intimidating thought that remains with me.

On my hilltop walk I was reminded of the parable of the sower. Firstly there has to be seed to be scattered, something to pass on. Next we scatter it far and wide, on sand, rocks or rich soil. There will be messes and stresses, flies and mosquitoes, pretty flowers and times of drought. The West Coast wild flowers bloom only in spring and the cosmos in many other inland regions in autumn. Some flowers like sandy soil, or showing off at the side of the road.

And we have to remember lastly that the package does not come with a guarantee. How many times do we plant and the seeds do not sprout? How many times can we honestly say we have done the best to pass on our faith to our children and they have chosen otherwise? But we continue to love them and leave them in the care of the Father who has created the flowers with such exquisite love and joy. Recognising our mission to be co-creators will hopefully lead to the same exquisite love and joy.

And as I stood on my hilltop along the country road, watching the sky lighten, the colours fade and shadows darken the earth in front of me, a car whizzed by on its way to start a new day. It didn’t stop at the stop sign, ignored the bumps in the road. No time to revel in the glory as I was able to do. I hope its dream has not been sold to someone else.