Garden of your heart

Have you ever noticed how many references Jesus makes about plants? I can think of quite a few right now. How about the Grain of Wheat in John 12:24-25? The Parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:6-9?  Even in last Sunday's Gospel Jesus tells us the parable of the weeds among the wheat; Matthew 13:3-9. Plants seems to be a recurring theme. It's pretty easy to see why. Plants are pretty much the basis of the food chain, so important in the ecosystem, and they are all around us. They bring us food, shelter, clothes, beauty and amazement. A lot of the people in Biblical times had to be farmers, which again, deal with plants. Not to mention the fact that plants are just plain good subjects for parables.

Anyway, the theme keeps coming back to my mind. Imagine your soul as a garden, you heart as a plot of ground. Going back to this week's Gospel, Matthew 13:39, we think about the soil. You decide what type of soil you are. Are you good soil, or are you rocky soil? As we can see from this Parable, and every day life, the kind of sol a garden has really matters. 

Now imagine the most beautiful flowers you can think of. These flowers are virtues. When they grow to their fullness, they produce fruit that nourishes others, which in turn produces seeds which can be planted in the garden of other people's hearts. God plants these beautiful seeds in your heart, sometimes through other people like you parents, teachers, pastor, siblings, friends Etc. Just as flowers can give rise to more flowers, so virtues can give rise to other virtues. So much so, that most virtues depend on one another. when you work on one virtues, you may find yourself lacking in others which are required to help the one.

Now think of the most ugly and vile weeds you can think of. You know those spiky ones? And don't even get me started on poison ivy! These weeds are vices. Bad habits and inclinations to evil. If they aren't weeded while their young, they will be really hard to get when they grow up. Like the virtues, they to can produce fruits, but these produce bad fruits which can feed other people's evils. And those fruits of evil can produce seeds, which can end up in other people's heart gardens. And again, just like the flowers, weeds produce more weeds, and they grow fast.

Now the rain and the sun are God's graces. He pours them out on your garden, and all the plants use them. The good plants use them to grow and flourish. The weeds take the grace and waste it, you can waste graces you know. You know when you feel the urge to do something good, you have the chance to do something nice, and you don't? Well that chance was a grace, and you just fed your weeds by choosing to do wrong, or not to do good anyway.

Every person you meet has the opportunity to plant some kind of seed in your heart, be it good or bad. Even you yourself can plant seeds in other people's gardens. Being around people who are full of virtues often helps us become virtuous because we follow their example. Likewise, hanging around with people who, well, aren't so virtuous can make us less virtuous, and more weedy. Also, we can help others root out their weeds and fix up their soil so that more of that grace can get to the virtues and help them grow.

So you see, you're hear really is like a garden, and you are a gardener. You do have control over what get's planted and what doesn't. You do have control over how good your soil is, and you also have the opportunity to help other people with their gardens. The only thing you don't have control over is the rain and sun, but rest assured that God will always give you what you need in that area. You have what you need, so go and make some beautiful gardens, people!