Homily

When any calamity has been suffered the first thing to be remembered is how much has been escaped. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson  

"We are weak, but He is Strong". (Jesus Loves Me)


"And in despair, I bowed my head
"There is no peace on earth", I said
"For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men''


Then pealed the bells more loud and deep
"God is not dead, nor does He sleep
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail"

(Henry Longfellow)

Indulge me in this evening of sorrow and gravity. My recourse is to the source of strength and truth, where 'there is no darkness at all'. (1John:5)

For every trouble of human frailty, for every problem we try to solve with our cleverness and ingenuity, there is a greater answer and a solution we can only glimpse 'through a glass darkly'.(1 Corinthians 13:12)

This is the  lesson I learn day by day.  Early in the spring, the days are short, the nights cold, the skies often gray and cloudy.  The little flowers sulk, their inner clocks unconvinced by all the aiding and abetting and good intentions of our mechanical and artificial sunlight. The petunias grow leaves; the tuberous begonias revert to tubers; the vinca refuses to photosynthesize at all.  The HID lights may create midnight at the oasis, but they are not the real thing. 

But at some magic moment, sometime after March, one day in April, whether the sun is out or not, the scales tip and the glass of light is no longer half empty, but half full.  The sulky sun lovers explode over night.  Like a child's Jack in a Box, greenery erupts, roots pry their way out of the pots.  There is a Master Gardener better than I.

And for every day I run the irrigator on the flats in the big greenhouse, and every time we turn on the hydrant and pour water on the vegetables, I recollect the days of summer, when one inch of rain from the sky soaks through the pots into the ground and somehow refreshes and endures for twice as long as the ministrations we provide.  

 

 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James1:17)

When any fit of anxiety or gloominess or perversion of the mind lays hold upon you make it a rule not to publish it by complaints but exert your whole care to hide it. By endeavoring to hide it you will drive it away. 

Dr. Samuel Johnson   

We cannot comprehend; our understanding is incomplete. Our results are imperfect; our efforts may be in vain.  We are called not to worry, but to "exert our whole care."