Life is a field that needs tending

Life is a field
It seems that Sundays always bring short bursts of insight. It wasn’t always the case but insights are more frequent as one confronts physical mortality through aging. My own insights seem to be prompted by the catalyst of someone else’s ponderings. In my case it is frequently the homily at mass or something heard via television. Yesterday the prompter was a homily about the creeping insidiousness of little missteps. In the New Testament Jesus warns us about the relationships of anger, hatred and murder; sexual imagination to adultery and coveting. The progression is undeniable. We all have the human proclivity to mull and grow small thoughts into consuming thought patterns and eventually into some form of action. This is quite similar to another simple teaching that tells us the power of faith as small as a mustard seed. Wrong thought, as small as a mustard seed, can become giant in our lives.
Life is like a field a farmer leases. We are given the freedom to plant and nourish whatever we wish. Eventually we will see the results of whatever seeds we have decided to give the most care and nourishment too. Each seed of thought produces its own particular fruit and it makes sense to be diligent in our choices. The New Testament gives us so many teachings of Christ which warn us of the pitfalls and advise us of best direction. His parables intertwine giving us a guide for creating crops that nourish our lives and our souls.
When I was growing up in Eastern Oregon the farmland we made our living on was very fragile. There was very little water, used up soil and we had to fight to create a living in this part of the country. We learned how to increase the nutrients in the soil, how to conserve moisture and how to stagger the use of the land giving time to build its strength. We took care in protecting the seed that we planted into this unwilling land by treating it to prevent sickness of the crop it was to produce. The most ardent of all labors that went into prize of a decent crop was that of eliminating the weeds. Christ also gave us the parable of the farmer whose fields were reduced to worthless value by thorns and weeds. Our field of life is the same. If we allow ourselves to be assaulted by seeds of thought which are harmful in our lives we stand to lose.
Throughout the Old and New Testaments we have been given a training manual for creating a fruitful life, all we have to do is pay attention. The Ten Commandments give us a basic straight forward directive regarding things that are vital to life as a society and as an individual. There has yet to be a better set of guide posts put in front of us. The temptations to circumvent or to ignore these commandments are stepping stones to disaster. We can see this in our own lives, in our neighbors and in our countries. From my own view I see the Old Testament as a book of warnings and examples of just how important it is to stay away from certain tendencies of the human condition. In the beginning Genesis starts with warnings about disobedience, the dangers of our inquisitive nature, anger and jealousy as seeds culminating in the act of murder. Most of the Old Testament is involved with showing us what happens when we shove aside the directions supplied to us in order to satisfy our basest noxious thoughts and actions. The New Testament takes an entirely different approach in using the example of Christ’s life, teachings and actions to show us a more positive approach to nourish our lives. Christ’s teachings give us direction on things to do, more so than the things to avoid.
Looking back on my own field of life it’s pretty evident which thoughts I nourished to create action and culminated in results that could have been predicted. Hindsight is always so much more prudent than prediction.