Many of us who live in rural areas of Nebraska are once again enjoying the marvelous miracle of nature as we watch the crops in the field grow. Abundant rains accentuate the productivity of fertile ground wherever it is found.
The Gospel passages proclaimed at Sunday Masses of late have featured parables that feature seed that is sown. Chapter Thirteen of Matthew’s Gospel is presented in three hearings. A couple of weeks back, Jesus’ parable of the four types of ground on which seed can fall accentuated the need to have "good soil" (faithful Christians) for the "seed" (His Word) to produce thirty or sixty or a hundredfold. Our minds and souls are the very ground that Jesus wants to make fertile so that His teachings might take root and bear spiritual fruits that offer authentic fulfillment to our lives.
The following week brought out the fact that wheat growing among weeds (faithful Christians living in the midst of pagans) not only can survive, but indeed can flourish. We often find that our faith becomes stronger when we respond to challenges, and even attacks, from those around us. Like wheat, we must be deeply rooted in order to survive. We must engage in the battle for truth lest we perish with the weeds.
Finally Jesus proclaims, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field" with such great perceived value that he who finds it "out of joy goes and sells all that he has" in order to possess it. The treasure is much like the aforementioned seeds in that it represents a great gift from God—His Word—that requires real sacrifice to obtain. Our spiritual efforts at receiving, studying, discussing, defending and sharing the great gift of Divine Truth found in Jesus naturally bear fruit in our lives. Fidelity and joy are just a couple of the fruits of being "fertile ground" for Jesus.
Natural Family Planning (NFP) Awareness Week spans the final full week of July. It purposely is situated around the July 25th date of the publication of the papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life) by Pope Paul VI in 1968. The mindset of those who lived in the radical sixties did not provide fertile ground for receiving the Catholic Church’s reaffirmation of its age-old teaching that using artificial contraception is gravely sinful and that NFP is a divinely blessed gift from God to humanity.
Just as the seed of God’s Word has been all too often ignored, cast aside and even blatantly destroyed, so also the seed of humanity, planted and nurtured in and through the exquisitely designed system we know as human fertility, also has been neglected and abused. A newfound understanding of and appreciation for human fertility is the goal of having annually a week that heightens our awareness of this great gift we know as NFP.
The staff at the FertilityCare Centers in Lincoln and throughout the diocese (with ads that appear regularly in this publication) exist to provide the knowledge and training that couples in their childbearing years need in order to provide God with the fertile ground needed to sanctify His people and build up His kingdom. Learning about and using NFP is just one of many ways that we can help the seeds of God’s love grow.
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