Dear Parishioners and Friends,

“The word of God is the seed, and Christ is the sower…” – This is what we read in the Gospel passage reserved for this Sunday. Since we are the disciples of Jesus, we are called to continue to seed His fields.  This is how we expand the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus desires that His kingdom be born in the heart of every man and spread throughout the world, until the moment when the Lord will come again and we will see all of His promises fulfilled.

To implement the mission commissioned by God, we need patience. A story tells of a man who prepared his plot well, watered it profusely and planted his seeds. After a few weeks he saw the first plants starting to grow. He was surprised because his neighbor’s plants were bigger. Each day he was losing patience. With concern for the future of his harvest he could not sleep at night. Until one such sleepless night, he came up with a brilliant idea in his opinion. He quickly ran into the field and began to pull and stretch on every plant to help it grow faster. It was a very laborious and tedious task. When he finished, he was very tired. He went to sleep, and when he got up, he went to his neighbor to tell him what he did. When they came to the field, they saw that all of the plants had died; everything was destroyed. The whole village laughed at this man for a long time, the man who had no patience.

Each of us, after sowing our seeds, should not forget that they grow and yield crops by themselves. Therefore, trusting God and relying on His foresight, we should cast our seeds in the ground, then let them rest there, until they are ready to grow. We should give God our abilities, and trust in the power of His love and the power of prayer. When we are in close proximity to God and take care of the affairs of His kingdom, God takes care of the affairs of our everyday life.

The family home is the beginning of this sowing and thus the shaping of a person in faith, purity and other values of Christian life, as well as his upbringing. The Christian family should contribute to social justice. The help between families deserves special praise.

Fidelity to the Gospel requires that each Christian family is always ready to welcome a new life, to share their wealth with the poor, to be open and hospitable towards others. Families today sometimes feel obliged to lead a way of life which is opposed to the dominant culture. A Christian family should bear witness to the stability of the Christian spirit. We must perceive in ourselves and others such values as penance and forgiveness of guilt, reconciliation and hope. In life, the family also gives testimony to the fruits of the Holy Spirit and blessings. It practices a lifestyle full of simplicity and realizes the work of a truly evangelical apostolate towards others. The family is to show how to spread the seeds of Life through responsible behavior, honest life, conscientious work, concern for the health and lives of others.
May the Lord bless generously all living Fathers and welcome all our deceased Fathers into the Kingdom of Heaven. God bless!