ack when I was kid at Charles P. Steinmetz High School in Chicago, I was in the Junior ROTC program. In fact, as a junior, I was the highest ranking cadet and the only commissioned officer in my class. I was the commander of the school’s Honor Guard, and it was no secret that I was in line to become the Corps’ Battalion Commander in my senior year. I was the only non-senior level cadet to get an A in the class from our Instructor. I was the cadet expert on map reading and taught and tutored the subject to underclassmen. I had one major deficit as a cadet though. I could not, for the life of me, shoot. In order to pass the course, you had to qualify, at least at minimal level, on the rifle range. On my own there was no way that was going to happen. Part of the problem was that due to my eyesight I needed to shoot left-handed, but the truth is I just was not very good and I really needed help.

Fortunately for me there was a fellow cadet named Chuck Thompson. Chuck and I didn’t meet until late in our sophomore year, when I was asked to give him a hand with map reading, which I was happy to do. In our junior year, Chuck more than returned the favor by helping me learn how to shoot straight. It took a lot of tutoring and a lot of time on the rifle range, but Chuck never gave up on me. He worked with me throughout our junior year and when it came time for me to officially attempt to qualify, I managed to do so, with one point to spare. I owed Chuck, big time.

To celebrate we went out for pizza and a movie, my treat. Afterwards, Chuck and I went back to his house and he revealed to me the two secrets that went into making him a marksman. The first was that his Dad had constructed a BB-Gun range for Chuck in the basement of their home and Chuck worked hard at getting better. The second secret began in his Mom’s garden. She grew the most beautiful roses I had ever seen. He showed me to her trophy room where she had stored the prizes from her competition in various gardening competitions. It was truly impressive. She had even developed several varieties of roses, herself, and Jackson and Perkins, the big, national rose company sold them in their catalogs. He then opened the ‘fridge and showed me the plastic bags of human blood she had stored there. She had gotten it from a local blood bank. It was expired, and unusable for transfusions anymore. Chuck explained that it was the only fertilizer that his Mom ever used on her roses. When I looked more than a little confused about all of this, he explained to me that the lesson was that you do what you need to do in order to achieve the results that you want.

That’s something of the point that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel, too. He is on his way to Jerusalem. There He will be rejected, beaten, mocked and crucified. He will take upon Himself the sins of the entire world, but not in any Universalistic, ‘cheap grace’ sense. No, Jesus tells us that our path involves not ease and comfort, but hard work from the Gardener, and a great deal of un-comfortableness for us.

You see, the Divine Owner of the garden expects for us to bear fruit. It isn’t enough that we stand in the yard and look pretty. He wants, He expects, us to be useful to the nourishment of others. He expects us to be contributors in bringing life to the world lying dead in sin. Consequently, the Gardener is going to dig around us, uproot and get rid of all the things that steal what we need to bear that fruit. He’s going to make certain that nothing is sapping our strength, diverting us from the intended goal. And then He’s going to fertilize us, literally, manure us. I don’t have to tell you what that means. But we’re going to be in it.

He fairly tells us that not only will we have to endure the smell, but that it’s going to get on us, even become a part of whom and what we are. Because, it seems that when we are ‘manured’, we are also nourished, and we grow. When we are ‘manured’ we do what needs to be done. We bear what needs to be borne. We accept that which God has in store for us, and we keep our eyes ever focused on the goal.

Through the most disgusting of situations and circumstances, we somehow find those missing elements that enable us to not just look like fruit trees, but to actually bear fruit. That manure takes the plain, bare ground in which we are planted and transforms it into holy ground; ground in which we blossom and flourish and become, like Moses, active participants in leading the world out of bondage. We become cooperators with God in feeding the world and are transformed from what was only fit to be chopped down and cast into the fire, into a Tree of Life.

And we have the manure in our lives, and the quiet, patient, and loving care of a wise Gardener to thank for it.

 

All Meditations ©2004-2007 Randolph A. Brown (IP not subject to Fair Use Clause). Permission will not be given for reprint†. Previous Meditations 2nd Sunday After Easter (April 22, 2007) Thomas / Low Sunday (April 15, 2007) Easter, The Feast of Feasts (April 8, 2007) Good Friday (April 6, 2007) Palm Sunday (April 1, 2007) 5th Sunday in Lent (March 25, 2007) 4th Sunday in Lent (March 18, 2007) 3rd Sunday in Lent (March 11, 2007) 2nd Sunday in Lent (March 4, 2007) 1st sunday in lent (February 25, 2007) Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent (February 21, 2007) Last Sunday After the Epiphany / Quinquagesima (February 18, 2007) 6th Sunday After the Epiphany / Septugesima (February 11, 2007) 5th Sunday After the Epiphany / Septugesima (February 4, 2007) 4th Sunday After the Epiphany (January 28, 2007)   †Regarding the copyright, Bp. Brown would like us to mention that it is not his intention to be stingy. It's only that he has future plans for the writings which do not facilitate their being shared at this time.   Personal Blog of Abp. Brown: