Happiness in a Tiny Seed

11^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 14, 2015

Mark 4:26-34

“The seed would sprout and grow, and the man knows not how. (Mrk 4:27).”

Even a tiny seed can teach us an important lesson in life. As we re-enter the ordinary season of the Church’s liturgy, Jesus reminded us that even the green and taken-for-granted plants hide great wisdom of the Kingdom of God. Indeed, in many of His parables, Jesus disclosed the wisdom and beauty of the creations and of the common human activities. God made us and the world not for His pastime’s leisure, but through His wisdom. Thus, every creation bear a mark of wisdom. This is the point of the Ordinary Season of the Church: we are to discover the beauty and meaningfulness of our ordinariness.

Unfortunately, we miss the point. Under the heavy influence of the post-modern mentality, we seek only the extraordinary and desire to be extraordinary. Our news outlets are filled with sensational reports of national leaders or juicy gossips from celebrities. The ordinary story of a simple teacher rarely sells in the markets, unless she wins a national award as an outstanding educator. Most-sold books and best-attended seminars are not other about attaining success, wealth and achievements. People will not think twice to watch a movie, featuring a Hollywood superstar, but surely be in great doubt if we have to come to catechism class in the parish. Even, our Catholic preachers, both ordained and lay, do their share in promoting this culture of success. Happiness is extraordinariness.

However, if we try to be honest, who among us have successfully become movie stars or turned to be CEOs of giant companies? Perhaps none. Only extremely small fraction of society can reach that summit of this world, but the rest of humanity are basically living in ordinariness. Yet, still we are craving for stardom.  A psychologist and Nobel-prize winner, Daniel Kahneman, pointed out in his research that we tend to disproportionately give our attention to insignificant yet spectacular events in our lives. After an airplane crash accident, we are seized by tremendous fear to travel by air. However, the statistics clearly indicated that much more people die because car accidents, but we disregard this and continue travel by land. Kahneman may give us a breakthrough psychological insight on why we like to give undue attention to extraordinary and take for granted the ordinary. Definitely, to become successful and to work hard for our dreams are good, but when we become unhappy and forget the most important things in our lives, then we need to pause for a while and listen to Jesus.

Through His parables, Jesus made a wakeup call. Even in the ordinariness of life, beauty, wisdom and happiness can be encountered. If a gradual growth of a little seedling can represent the Kingdom of God, then our simple and unsung lives can also symbolize the mighty works of God. Our regular labor, facing all the hassles, may yield to a better future of our children. A daily act of bringing our kids to school may save them a lot of problems of growing up. A priest who is faithfully celebrating daily mass and preparing his homily, may save a lot of souls from his congregations. And when we pause a moment, and reflect on our ordinary actions in our simple life, we may now realize that indeed they are beautiful and God surely is there. We have always a reason to be happy.

   

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP