WHERE ARE YOU PLANTED?

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I had to give a homily last Thursday to a group of about forty students. The responsorial psalm at mass was Psalm 1. I talked to them about the verse that describes the just one who follows God's ways:

He is like a tree
planted near streams of water,
that yields its fruit in season;
Its leaves never wither;
whatever he does prospers. (Ps.1:3)

Here are some thoughts from that homily.

Look at the image of the tree that is planted near a stream, where its roots could tap down into the moist soil, causing In the arid country of Palestine, this image would have been really powerful.

I'm really attracted by the idea of those roots. I reminds me a demonstration that some sophomore biology students did a few years ago: They planted seeds in various kinds of soil, and applied varied the amounts of water to different seeds, and then noted the progress of each seed, comparing the effects of the various conditions in which the seeds were growing.

It wasn't so much an experiment as a demonstration: everyone pretty much knew ahead of time what was going to happen: The seeds that got less water didn't thrive, and those planted in sterile sand did poorly compared to those planted in soil rich in minerals and nutrients.

In this experiment, where light and temperature were not varied, the differences depended on the soil in which each seed and then each shoot was growing. The roots of each plant absorbed only what they could get from the soil: everything depended on where they they were planted.

The same is true of you and me. Where are your roots? What anchors your life and nourishes you? From what I can see, it seems that most of our teenagers and many adults

are anchored in and nourished by their phones: Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and so on. Their roots seem sunk deep into cyber-soil. But does that soil nourish your spirit? Does it call you to be a nobler and more loving human being? Does that soil give you strength?

Do the people making billions of dollars in the social media industry care about whether you grow up to be a morally responsible adult, a good father, a generous neighbor?

Watch where you put down your roots, where you spend your time and focus your attention. I once heard Rev. Jesse Jackson, give an address to a group of educators. He told us, "Our kids eat junk, they listen to junk, they watch junk, they read junk; and then we wonder why they become spiritual junkies!"

Where are your roots right now? Are they planted in junk?

Lent is a good time to check out your roots -- to look at the amount of time you spend on various activities, at the kind and quality of things you watch, read and listen to. These are where the roots of your life a planted, and they determine the kind of person you will be.

Get those roots into the right soil and watch what happens:
You will be like a tree
planted near streams of water,
that yields its fruit in season;
Its leaves never wither;
whatever you do will prosper. 
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