No detail of the Scriptures – as we often emphasize in the community – is there by happenstance, and one of the questions we often reflect on during the Rosary is why Jesus chose to begin His Passion in a garden of olive trees; surely there were other solitary areas near Jerusalem that would have been apt for prayer.
As the founder of our community points out, the olive tree is an evergreen – which immediately links it symbolically with other passages of the Scripture that refer to the just man, the man who trusts in the Lord, as an evergreen, a “tree planted near streams of water” which never ceases to bear fruit (cf. Ps 1:3; Jer 17:8). In this mystery, therefore, Jesus shows us that the key to maintaining this vigor, this holy fruitfulness – the key to being “evergreen” in our spiritual lives – is persistence in saying “yes” to the will of the Father.
Here, though, the next obvious question is…what IS the will of the Father? Every day we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, Thy will be done, but what exactly does that mean? Can we even know?
Friar Volantino points out another link between two passages of the Gospels, where Jesus speaks of His mother and brothers: “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?,” He asks in the Gospel of Matthew – and then, in two different Gospels, He offers a parallel answer:
“Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever do does the will of my heavenly Father
is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matt 12:49-50)
“My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.” (Luke 8:21)
Equating the two underlined statements as summaries of the “mother and brothers” of Jesus, we see that “doing the will of the Father” means “hearing the word of God and acting on it.”
We are at no loss for the Word of God: it is literally at our fingertips – in hard copy, apps, audible format, in the readings for every Mass. It is up to us to encounter it – to let Him encounter us through it – and to say yes to what He says, bearing fruit: thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold (cf. Luke 8).
“The seed of God's Word has been sown in our hearts. What kind of ground have we prepared for him? Are there many stones? Is it full of thorns? Are we letting petty and exclusively human cares trample all over it? Lord, make my plot of ground be good, fertile and generously exposed to sun and rain. Let your seed take root in it and produce a fine crop of good wheat.” (St. Josemaría Escrivá, “A Life of Prayer,” in “Friends of God,” n. 254)
Lenten Challenge: Spend at least 20 minutes a day this week with the Mass readings for the day. Hone in on one aspect of those Scriptures and try to put it into practice that day.
Comments