Homily Ordinary 11B: Gardening with God’s help!

Homily for 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year B 2018 

Ezekiel 17:22-24 2 Corinthians 5:6-10 Mark 4:26-34 

Introduction 

In January 2003, I was installed as a Parish Priest of Kachongha in Bunyole.  I was four and half years a priest.  And this was the first time I was becoming a parish priest.   As you can imagine, I was very happy. 

  

As is customary for such occasions, at the handover, I planted a tree seedling to mark the beginning of my ministry.  This tree seedling would be a metaphor for my ministry as Pastor of this parish.  After all Jesus had described the Kingdom of God, as being like a mustard seed, “the smallest of all the seeds on the earth, which once it is sown, springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” 

My new parish community of 12 outstations and about 4,000 parishioners had had no Parish Priest for several years before my arrival.  It was a small parish, with poor church attendance, few recipients of sacraments and low collections. But I had volunteered for this assignment, because I wanted a challenge and I thought that I could make some changes and help people to grow in their faith and love of Jesus Christ, especially in the way they lived out their faith. 

Sadly, three years later when I left this assignment, the tree I had planted had not grown much; in fact, it was no taller than me, and as you can see I am not a very tall person.  And just the like the tree, the parish community had also only grown just a little, in the numbers of people attending Mass, in the numbers receiving the sacraments and of course in the amount of the collection. 

I had to ask myself; what had happened to all my fertilizing, weeding, watering and pruning of the tree and of the community?  Where was the large mustard tree that the Lord promised, again both the tree itself and the parish community? 

Scripture and Theology 

I think that my problem was that I had read only the second parable, the parable of the mustard seed, and yet today we have been given two parables.  I had not listened to the message of the first parable.  The two parables of today’s gospel have to be read together.  For while both use the image of tree planting, they focus on different aspects of building the Kingdom of heaven.  The parable of the mustard seed rightly points to the end-result of the planting process, the fairly large tree that is the Kingdom of God.  The first parable points to the process, to what happens between the planting and the maturation. 

Let us listen again to this first parable where Jesus says: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how.”  This parable reminds us that although we do the planting, the actual growth of the seed happens without our awareness and really even without our effort.  That is why this parable has been given so many names by scholars of the bible. 

• Some call it, “the Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly”; in other words, the seed grows secretly without the farmer even being aware of what is going on.  If you compare this idea to my work as a parish priest, this means, that although I was the one preaching, saying Mass and baptising children, I really did not know the work that God was doing in his people.  The seed of the faith was growing secretly. 
• Others call this parable, “the Parable of the Patient Farmer.”  In other words, the farmer has to be patient, because he does not really control how fast or how fruitfully the tree grows.  In the same way, as a parish priest, I have to be patient and not expect the numbers of people coming to Church to double, the number of marriages to triple and the collection to quadruple overnight.  I have to be patient as God does his work quietly. 

And so, while both parables urge us on to be diligent gardeners and give us the hope that our ministry will bear great fruit, they also remind us that only God makes the growth of his Kingdom happen and we are only poor instruments. 

Christian Life 

In fact the story of Christianity and especially of the Church is really the story of these two parables about the seed growing quietly into the large mustard tree.  Today the Catholic Church has more than a billion members, to say nothing about the other Christians as well.  And this began with 12 apostles, many of whom were really not that sophisticated; some were fishermen, others tax-collectors – what did they know about running a world-wide organization?  And yet from their small beginnings, today we have the large mustard seed of the Church! Moreover, how we have gotten here, we really cannot explain, especially given the many weaknesses of the Church, including of its leaders and of its members!  The Church is really the story of the mustard tree growing silently. 

Since we are in a convent and a house of formation, let us also look at examples from religious life.  When St. Anthony of Egypt went into the desert, when St. Benedict went into the cave, when St. Francis of Assisi left home, when St. Dominic began preaching, when St. Ignatius of Loyola underwent his conversion, did they know that their small beginnings would produce great fruit? 

• Today we have thousands of hermits like the Carthusians and others, who are the mustard tree that has come out of the work of St. Anthony of Egypt. 

• Today we have thousands of monks and nuns, who follow the rule of St. Benedict and other monastic rules as well, all coming out of the small beginnings of the work of St. Benedict and his followers. 

• Today we have hundreds of thousands of friars, Franciscan, Dominican, Carmelites and others, who have taken the small seed, planted by St. Francis, St. Dominic and made it the mustard seed of these orders today. 

• And from these orders, we have many third order congregations of sisters and brothers like you who are here today, all following Jesus Christ most radically in the evangelical counsels.  The small seed has become the mustard tree of religious life throughout the world. 

And moreover, all this great growth has happened, yes, through the work of men and women, but really it is the work of God. 

Besides religious life, let us also look at our own local example here in Namugongo.  Two weeks ago we celebrated Uganda Martyrs Day (led by my home Archdiocese of Tororo).  What St. Charles Lwanga, St. Kizito and their twenty colleagues did was like the small mustard seed, that today has grown into a large tree.  We can see this large tree in the large number of people who come to Namugongo every year from all over the world. Last year I saw two buses that had driven all the way from Malawi, passing through Tanzania, Kenya to reach here; and then you have people who walk all the way from Kenya to here. But most of all, you can see the mustard tree in the large number of Catholics in this country, people whose faith has been sustained and strengthened by the example and the prayers of the martyrs. 

Conclusion 

Recently, I was back in Kachonga in my former parish.  And I visited the tree that I had planted so many years ago.  Fifteen years later, it is now a large tree. In fact, when they celebrate Mass outside, they use it for shade. 

And similarly, the parish is now more vibrant.  For example, nowadays about ten to twenty people come for daily Mass, while at my time it was just me and the seminarian.  Surely, the mustard seed of faith in that parish is growing into the mustard tree.  And who is making it grow? It is not Father Deo or the priests who came after me, but it is God working through our weak efforts.  May we always dispose our efforts, however small, so that God can work wonders with them. 

BROADENED HORIZONS: MY 24 HOURS IN DUBAI

First-time airline, inaugural flight

I have always heard good things about Emirates Airlines, even arranged dozens of flights for friends and colleagues on this airline, but have never actually flown it myself.  That changed two days ago, when exercising my loyalty to low prices rather than to any particular airline, I found a really good price for a round-trip itinerary to Uganda with Emirates Airlines.  Even better, I decided to fly out of Newark NJ, rather than my usual JFK, since that saved another couple of hundred dollars.  I did not realize that my June 1^st 11:50am flight from Newark was an inaugural flight for Emirates from this airport, adding to the nightly flight – that might explain the good price.

The check-in process went smoothly despite the fact that my three large piece of luggage probably went over the limits both in weight and dimensions – I had already paid online for the excess piece (beyond the two free allowed) and therefore saved 20%.  The boarding process was also painless since we boarded by zones. I had picked one of the back seats (near the kitchen and bathroom obvious reasons), after all it was a 13-hour flight!

A cosmopolitan crew

I knew I was in for a treat when the captain came on PA system and introduced himself as being Jamaican with the accent to match; his first officers were from Spain and I believe France.  There were a couple others in the cockpit, including one Emirati among those who wear three or four bars on their shoulders.  I was surprised at how cosmopolitan the crew, both within the cockpit and outside were.  Our stewardesses came from all the continents, including Chinese, Indian and Filipino ladies, and South Africans.  Most national airlines seem to recruit primarily from their own population – but apparently, not Emirates.

Delayed flight, missed connection

A few hours into the flight I realized that I would not make my connection to Entebbe, since we left Newark a little late – perhaps due to teething problems for an inaugural flight; also I had a short connection in Dubai.  But I decided that I would cross that bridge when I got to Dubai, and simply enjoyed my flight, praying and sleeping, eating and drinking, enjoying the state of the art entertainment system.

A guest of Emirates Airlines

On arrival in Dubai, Emirates personnel were waiting for us late passengers with new flight arrangements.  These arrangements included a rebooked flight (for me the next day), hotel reservations, vouchers for three meals and instructions on getting a visa.  There was after all a silver lining to this missed flight.  Now I had 24 hours in Dubai, to rest, eat (as a guest of the Emirates Airlines) and for a small fee take a tour of the city.  And take this opportunity, I did.

Where the heck is Dubai?

Did you know that Dubai is just one of the seven emirates (states) which make the United Arab Emirates (UAE)?  Dubai’s monarch is also the vice-president and prime-minister of the UAE, since it is the second largest emirate, the largest and most important being Abu Dhabi, whose leader also serves as the President of the country.

I remember losing a bet (a fountain pen) to a classmate during the 1986 world cup, because I picked the UAE over West Germany; I thought that UAE was a combination of all the Arab countries and would therefore mathematically stand a better chance against half a country – the western half.  Clearly I was ignorant, both geographically and historically.  My 24-hour break more than made up for my lost bet.

Modern city

Although oil has a played a large part in its economic development, Dubai also prides itself with being a commercial hub and having great real estate.  In fact, we spent most of our tour driving past dozens of hotels (they are about 300 in the city), most of them five-star hotels, as well as other architecturally impressive structures, such as the tallest building the Burj Khalifa, the man-made island and its Atlantis hotel, the Blue mosque (a replica of the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul).  We also drove by the souqs (markets), the great big Mall, the fountain that put on a five-minute show with lights and all at dusk, the King’s palace and the many palaces in the neighbourhoods, most of them occupied by single families.  There are even palaces just for the royal family with private beaches to match.  We spent a few minutes at the beach, where I was surprised to see bikini-clad women freely enjoying themselves in the water, despite the UAE being nearly 100% Islamic.

Religious compromises

Speaking of Islamic/Arabic practices, Dubai seems to allow a variety of options.

• Some women wore the so-called Islamic veil in all its various formats, but others did not, just wearing dresses, trousers, skirts, what you would find any woman wearing on the streets of New York City.
• My visit happened to occur during the month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast; and fast indeed most of them seemed to be doing.  In fact, at the hotel, the restaurant was cordoned off and the glass doors covered over with a curtain, for us non-Muslims to enjoy our sumptuous buffet without tempting those who were fasting, until iftar (the break-fast) at sundown.  And during the tour, our tour-guide asked us not to drink water outside the bus, out of consideration for those who were fasting.  I thought both requests were a reasonable balance that satisfied all parties.
• Our tour guide told us that although the UAE is majority Muslim, other religions are practiced, including Catholicism, Hinduism and Sikhism, the principal religions of the UAE’s large immigrant population.  And so I went to www.masstimes.org to see if there were any Catholic churches and indeed there are four in UAE under the Vicariate Apostolic (Diocese-like circumscription) of Southern Arabia, which besides the UAE includes the countries of Oman and Yemen.  In the UAE itself, it seems there are three Catholic parishes, one in Abu Dhabi, another in Al Ain and one in Sharjah, very close to Dubai.  Their mass schedule does not look anything like mass schedules in Western countries, since the immigrant workers can only pray early before work or late after work, as well as probably not being able to be have Sunday off, since it is not a holiday, and so must pray on Friday the Muslim day of prayer.

Of course the political tensions of the area are never far from the surface. As we flew over Asia, I noticed that the flight path of our aircraft was avoiding the airspace of Iran (a non-Arab country – Persian), faithfully staying on the Iraqi side of the border.

One race, one people

And so, my missed connection after all turned out to be a blessing in disguise, since it broadened my horizons about the world, and especially about this part of the world.  Most of all, I especially appreciated meeting all kinds of people besides the Americans with whom I flew from Newark.  I met a Chinese young lady on her way back from home to Buenos Aires (which I continually confused with Rio de Janeiro), where she is a Spanish-Chinese translator – since I did not speak Chinese and she did not speak Ateso, my native-tongue, we spoke a bit of English and Spanish.  Our tour guide was from the Indian sub-continent, but spoke English wish such clarity and had such a knowledge of Dubai that attend to our experience of the city; he knew, by heart, the dates on which different hotels were opened and different events happened.  Then there was the Emirati carpet shopkeeper, who not only spoke English to the whole tour group, but Mandarin with the three Chinese tourists in our group, and Arabic with the Iraqi man in our group.  At the airport duty-free shop, as I was debating on how many bottles of port wine and amaretto to buy, the Kenyan shop attendant went to consult with a Ugandan colleague about the Customs allowance in Uganda and gladly told me that I could take two bottles – much to the delight of family and friends when I got home.

Finally, there was the gentleman travelling from a conference in London with a young man who had some mental and physical challenges; I noticed that he seemed lost; even the uniformed personnel did not seem to be able to help him.  When I approached to offer help, he told me he was looking for Gate C26 – when I tried to find it, there seemed to be no Gate 26.  Then I asked to see his boarding pass –there was no gate number on it.  But then I read the destination; it was Entebbe, my same destination.  So, I told them to follow me, I loaded their back-packs onto my cart and we made our way to Gate C6, and onwards to Uganda.