{"id":2868,"date":"2019-03-24T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/?p=2868"},"modified":"2019-03-23T16:56:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T20:56:14","slug":"the-seed-that-becomes-the-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/the-seed-that-becomes-the-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seed That Becomes the Rose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"custom-html-block\"><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/5uaqs-ab0560?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" data-link=\"https:\/\/www.podbean.com\/media\/player\/5uaqs-ab0560?from=yiiadmin&amp;download=1&amp;version=1\" height=\"122\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" data-name=\"pb-iframe-player\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\"><strong>T<u>here are some priests who should never be priests<\/u>. <u>There are some doctors who should never be doctors<\/u>. <\/strong>I say this not because these priests and these doctors are not smart enough to do their work. I say this because they are lacking in hope.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">I few years ago a very good friend of mine developed a high fever while she was on chemotherapy. A very bright, young resident doctor came into her hospital room and examined her. <u>Then in a disdainful voice along with a snobbish face he declared<\/u>: <strong>\u201cYou\u2019re infected!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">My good friend felt badly when she first came into the hospital, but now she felt a whole lot worse. <u>A little later her primary physician stopped by to see her and declared in the most positive sounding voice<\/u>: <strong><em>\u201cWhy Claudette, I am truly impressed with the level of your toxicity!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <u>My friend\u2019s primary doctor is not only a respected oncologist, but a man who gives hope to his patients<\/u>. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">When I later shared this story with a small group of my priest friends, one of them remarked: <em>\u201cBut are you sure he\u2019s not giving her false hope?\u201d I replied, <strong>\u201cAt this stage of her life, Claudette said she would rather have false hope than no hope at all.\u201d<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">In the famous passage in the letter from St. Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 13, he says, <strong><em>\u201cThere are three things that last forever: faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> <u>This is true, but the most neglected virtue is hope<\/u>. Not only are priests and physicians sometimes lacking in hope, but others who serve us often lack hope as well: parents, teachers, and community leaders.<br \/><strong><br \/>We hear the Parable of the Fig Tree in today\u2019s Gospel<\/strong> (Luke 13:1-9). <u>Those of us who are waiting for our little fruitless fig trees to grow need to hear voices of hope here<\/u>. <br \/><strong><br \/>Hope is a Christian virtue that needs to be nurtured in each one of us. Hope is not a dream, but a way of making dreams become reality. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">I<u>n Luke\u2019s parable today, it is not a poet, a physician or a priest who offers hope, but a gardener<\/u>. <em>It is the vocation of a gardener to give people hope \u2013 to wait for the harvest, to know that even beneath the winter snow lies the seed that in the springtime becomes the rose as the Bette Midler song says.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The owner of the fig tree has given up. He is like a friend of mine who has convinced herself that she doesn\u2019t have a \u201cgreen thumb\u201d. I think the \u201cgreen thumb\u201d theory is a myth. <strong><u>My friend doesn\u2019t need a \u201cgreen thumb\u201d, she needs a gardener with hope.<\/u><\/strong> <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">When I reflected and prayed over today\u2019s Gospel story, I noticed something wonderfully hopeful. <u>The gardener prays for restraint and offers a prescription of hope<\/u>. <em>\u201cSir, leave it for this year also and I shall cultivate the ground around it and fertilize it. It may bear fruit in the future.\u201d<\/em> <br \/><u><br \/>And then the gardener says something quite startling<\/u>, <em>\u201cIf not, <\/em><strong><u><em>you<\/em><\/u><\/strong><em> can cut it down.\u201d <\/em>So even if the fig tree does not bear fruit, the gardener will have nothing to do with destroying it himself. <u>This respectful gardener tells the owner to cut it down<\/u>. <strong>People of hope are like that.<\/strong><br \/><strong><br \/>Several years ago a teacher was assigned to visit children at a large city hospital.<\/strong> She was asked to visit a particular child in the burn unit. <u>His regular classroom teacher told her that his class was studying nouns and adverbs and she didn\u2019t want him to fall behind<\/u>. <\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">When the visiting teacher arrived at the burn unit, she found the boy badly burned and in great pain. She felt that she couldn\u2019t just turn and walk away, so she stammered and said, <em><strong>\u201cI\u2019m the hospital teacher and your regular teacher sent me to help you with nouns and adverbs.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">The next morning a nurse asked the teacher, <em>\u201cWhat did you do to that boy?\u201d<\/em> Before she could off an apology, the nurse continued, <em>\u201c<u>You don\u2019t understand<\/u>. <u>We\u2019ve been so worried about him<\/u>. <u>But since you were here yesterday<\/u>, <u>his whole attitude has changed<\/u>. <u>He\u2019s fighting back and responding to treatment<\/u>. <u>It\u2019s seems he\u2019s decided that he wants to live<\/u>.\u201d<\/em><br \/><u><br \/>The boy later explained that he had completely given up hope until he saw the visiting teacher<\/u>. He came to the simple realization and said: <strong>\u201cThey wouldn\u2019t send a teacher to work on nouns and adverbs with a dying boy, would they?<\/strong>&#8220;<br \/><strong><br \/>The most important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. <\/strong><br \/><strong><br \/>HOPE<\/strong> <em>is the little voice you hear whisper<\/em> <strong>\u201cmaybe\u201d<\/strong> <em>when it seems the entire world is shouting <\/em><strong>\u201cNO!\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; There are some priests who should never be priests. There are some doctors who should never be doctors. I say this not because these priests and these doctors are not smart enough to do their work. I say this because they are lacking in hope. I few years ago a very good friend [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-m":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-ml":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"ocean-thumb-l":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",150,150,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured.png",100,100,false],"rpwe-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/1552788416_featured-45x45.png",45,45,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Medard Laz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/author\/medlaz\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/category\/weekly-messages\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Weekly Messages<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"&nbsp; &nbsp; There are some priests who should never be priests. There are some doctors who should never be doctors. I say this not because these priests and these doctors are not smart enough to do their work. I say this because they are lacking in hope. I few years ago a very good friend&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2868"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.treatsforthesoul.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}