GOOD SEED AND BAD

GOOD SEED AND BAD                    

This past week I had some time off by myself…time to pray, to reflect and to refresh.

And so, I found myself with time to read…

And one of the things I read was the story of a boy of 13, who in 1895 murdered his mother.

The first part of the book told of how in the days after the murder, he left his mother’s body in her bedroom, while he and his younger brother went about town to plays andcricket matches, and after a few days invited a family friend to come stay with them, supposedly at their mother’s invitation, but really as cover to the reality of their lives.

This went on for 10 days before an aunt literally pushed her way into the home, only to find her sister in laws body lying in bed.

The boy was arrested, and for the next several months, his story made headlines throughout England. People were curious as to his fate, and pondered how a boy could do such a thing to his own mother.

Some thought him cold and calculating, knowing exactly what he had done.

Others wondered if he was insane, some thought perhaps a medication he had taken impacted him in a horrible way.

In the end, he was found guilty by reason of insanity, and was taken away to an asylum, with most people thinking he’d spend the rest of his life behind its walls.

He did spend 17 years there.

But having grown and matured, and proving himself to be of sound mind, he was released at the age of 30. But that’s not the end of the story…

Soon after his release he moved to Australia…and soon after that, with the start of World War 1, he entered the Australian Imperial Force to fight in the war…for the next four years he fought bravely alongside the allied forces…and for his service he was awarded the Military Medal for the courage he had shown and the many lives he had saved.

The rest of his life was spent in relative quiet, as he raised crop or cattle…mostly alone, without a wife or family of his own. But when a neighbor beat his son, and the son was pushed out of the house, this man offered to take him in. An act of great kindness that lasted 6 years, as he raised this boy, saving him from harm. An act this boy remembered with great affection for the rest of his life.

At the age of 13, with the deed he had done and the notoriety he had gained, most everyone assumed this boy was the worst of humanity. Many wanted him to hang, some thought him mad. Almost all were sure he’d never leave the asylum and its care.

But after the care he received, this boy grew into a man, and showed himself to be someone of great valor and kindness, someone of great worth and honor.

And though this may not excuse the deed he had done, it shows once again that within all of us there is good, within all of us there is possibility, within all of us there is hope.

Our Gospel today speaks of the good seed and the bad, of the children of the kingdom and the children of the evil one. It makes it appear as though we are either one or the other.

But I think it’s possible that anyone of us could at any time, due to illness or pressure or some outside influencing force, do an act this is evil, or something that is horrible…we will sin, we will make mistakes, we will do things that are hateful…but this doesn’t mean that we are bad, and it doesn’t mean there isn’t any hope.

If we believe we are God’s creation, adopted as his children, then we are, by nature, good.

We are something, even, that is holy.

And though we can fall under the influence of evil or sin, and though we can certainly do things that are hateful or unkind, there is always the possibility of redemption, always the possibility of forgiveness and new life…there is always hope that our goodness will prevail, that our goodness will be strong enough to overcome anything that is bad or evil within us.

Our bad actions are not who we are, and they do not have to be the whole story of our lives…

And so, as we look at our lives…the things that we have done, the things we should have done…we don’t beat ourselves up…. we don’t look down on ourselves…we don’t define ourselves by our mistakes and failings…and we certainly don’t begin thinking the story is ended.

Rather, we must first forgive ourselves for anything we have done that is evil or sinful, for anything we have done that hurt someone or created situations that were harmful for others.

We forgive ourselves for the sins of our past… accepting responsibility for them, of course… learning from them, hopefully…but then moving forward striving to be the people we truly are, the people God created …

And then, after forgiving ourselves, we must seek the forgiveness of others…those we have hurt, those we have harmed, those who were affected by our deeds.

And yes, it might be difficult for them to forgive,some may never forgive, but still we try, it is right that we try…we go to these people expressing our sorrow and seeking their forgiveness…striving to make amends and to move on from our past.

And from here, we turn of course, to God. The one who knows our weakness, the one who knows what we are lacking in…but the one who also knows our goodness and worth…who gives us our dignity and value…. the one is loving and kind, merciful and forgiving…and we seek his forgiveness, we seek to be one with him again.

And there’s really no need to hash it all out again…God already knows what we have done, God already knows our intention and sees our goodness…and so we simply go before him, perhaps through the priest in the sacrament of reconciliation, expressing our sorrow…

And having done so, we receive his mercy and love, as well as the grace of the sacrament, and so strive to live more fully as the people he created.

We all fall under the influence of evil or sin to some degree or another, we will all be bad at some point in our lives…but always, no matter what we have done, there is the possibility of redemption, the hope of new life…for we are, at our core, good seed…

We are God’s creation, his children by adoption, the people he loves as his own…

Let us always remember who we are…

And when we find ourselves being who we are not, let us seek forgiveness, and then strive once again to be children of Kingdom…