Sowing Good Seeds is Life-Giving

In Matthew 13:3–9, Jesus shares a parable about a sower scattering seeds. Some were eaten by birds, others fell on rocky ground or among thorns where they were ultimately destroyed. But, Jesus continued, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

 

How can we ensure that the seeds we plant—or the seeds that are planted in us—find good soil so they can thrive?

 

Sister Ave Clark’s life could easily have been derailed after she became the victim of abuse and assault. But a spiritually minded psychiatrist named Dr. Frederic Gannon became the sower of good seeds for Sister Ave when she struggled to come to terms with what had happened to her.

 

Dr. Gannon explained, “You’re wearing yourself out. When you learn that life isn’t fair…you will learn to weave compassion around it.”

 

That revelation changed Sister Ave. She realized that when bad things happened—to her or to anyone—feelings of anger could arise and become all-consuming. But accepting that life wasn’t always fair allowed her to explore how she could use her suffering to help others find new life after being hurt.

 

During a Christopher Closeup interview about her book Sewing—Sowing Good Deeds with Joy and Hope, she explained that this approach can help others see their trauma “not in a negative way, but maybe it also has a grace in it. So, there’s a balance to it. I’m not naive. Some things are a great struggle to get through…[But] we have to get up, and we have to look at life in more positive, life-giving ways.”

 

Dr. Gannon’s insight planted the seed for Sister Ave to create Heart to Heart Ministry, in which she counsels people who have endured various types of trauma. “What do we put into our soil of life,” she reflected, “so not only that it blooms for us, but it also blooms for other people, like with charity, hope, forgiveness, and understanding?”

 

As an example, Sister Ave recalled speaking at a Compassionate Friends meeting, which brings together people who have endured the tragedy of losing a child. “As I looked out at them, I realized that these people, they’re helping each other, they’re carrying each other. And there’s joy there, too—the joy of befriending someone in their sorrow. It’s not saying, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll go away in time.’ No. There are many sorrows we’ll carry with us for the rest of life. But how do we learn to carry them? When we sow love, in whatever way we’re doing it, we bring peace.”

​

‘The Widow’s Mite’ Sows Good Seeds

You don’t need power, money, or wealth to sow good seeds in someone’s life. All that is required is love, empathy, and compassion.

​

For instance, author and speaker Lisa Hendey traveled to Colombia several years ago to observe the work of Catholic Relief Services (CRS). She and a team of journalists met a young woman named Maria, who had benefited from CRS’ annual Lenten appeal, Operation Rice Bowl. It provided her with a scholarship for job training so she could contribute financially to her family.

During a Christopher Closeup interview about her book Jesus Every Day, Jesus Every Way, Lisa explained that Maria and her family welcomed the group into their home for breakfast. That year, Maria’s picture was on the Rice Bowl box, and her story was being shared.

 

Lisa noted that Maria’s home was made mostly of tarps, but thanks to her job, they would soon be able to build a brick wall—a point of pride for Maria, who expressed deep gratitude for the help she received.

 

After the meal, Maria gave Father Rafael a Rice Bowl box with her family’s names written on it. Inside were just a few coins. She said, “Padre, we can’t give much, but we know what this has done for our family, and we want to help other families around the world just like ours. Please accept this gift. It’s not very much money, but it’s from the heart.”

 

Father Rafael, a large, strong priest, was moved to tears. He later said he would never preach about the widow’s mite without thinking of that moment—when someone gave not from excess, but from need, and did so with love and compassion. It was a moment that changed everyone who witnessed it.

​

Sowing Good Seeds in Prison

Shortly after her abusive marriage ended in divorce in 1981, Judy Henderson started dating a man she believed to be kind, God-fearing, and a positive influence on her two children. In retrospect, she realizes that she ignored several “red flags” about him that seem evident now, but didn’t register back then.

​

As a result, Judy learned the hard way that the man she had fallen for possessed a serious dark side, one which ended up getting her convicted of a murder that he committed, while he got off scot-free.

​

Understandably, Judy was left feeling resentful and angry towards God for what He had allowed to happen to her. But her soul found new life after she attended a three-day Catholic Charities retreat that she initially resisted going to. She found her resentment was melted by the workers running the retreat, who sowed seeds of love in her heart.

​

“God became so real,” Judy explained during a Christopher Closeup interview about her memoir When the Light Finds Us: From a Life Sentence to a Life Transformed. “I saw how they brought us food, they brought us all kinds of understanding. They didn’t care what we were there for, they didn’t even want to know…But when they washed our feet, that moment changed my life.”

“Here they were kneeling down to me and showing me a love that I hadn’t known in a long time. I think that made me realize that this is the love I had been looking for, searching for, all my life: the God love. To fall in love with God, to fall in love with Jesus, to do His work, to do what He created me to do. If it took this journey to get me to that point, then I was willing to walk it and learn what it was I needed to learn.”

​

Judy soon began sowing her own good seeds among her fellow inmates. As a professional hairdresser, she started doing their hair and makeup, which led them to feel better about themselves. Then she became a fitness trainer to help them get in shape and get any drugs out of their systems.

​

She also earned certification as a paralegal, who appealed for—and often won—clemencies for them. She taught incarcerated mothers how to talk to their children and break the “generational curse” of abuse and crime which led them to prison in the first place. And she started a support group for battered women.

​

Though it took 36 years of appeals by Judy’s attorney, she finally won her release in 2017, when the governor commuted her sentence after reviewing the details of the case, which even the original prosecutor came to see as unjust.

​

Some time later, Judy gave a talk at Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph. The CEO offered her a job then and there because she had such a positive spirit that lacked anger or bitterness. Though Judy hadn’t been looking for work, she accepted the offer because she now gets to continue serving God through serving others, sowing even more seeds of hope and faith.

All these stories serve as a reminder to take a careful look at your life, your talents, your struggles, and your blessings. Then, try to discern the ways in which God is calling you to sow good seeds that make this world a better place.