She May Bear Fruit

As any gardener will tell you, good soil is essential to a good garden. And the common garden tool every gardener needs is the common garden hoe. Hoeing the garden allows the nutrients of the fertilizer to be absorbed into the soil. Hoeing keeps the weeds under control and keeps the soil moist. Hoeing breaks up the hard crusts and allows the soil to breathe life-giving oxygen. The gardener knows that hoeing keeps the soil in good condition so that whatever is planted there will bear fruit.

Benedict recommends that we need to create this same kind of good soil in forming minds and hearts of the persons of every age and level of understanding in the community. It will take a lot of hoeing and using every tool we have. Loving and listening with the heart are tools that may work with some, while counseling and confrontation may be necessary with others. But the common tool in formation is always prayer. God’s life-giving grace can do what our tools cannot do.

These Lenten days are hoe days for turning over the soil of our soul garden, for reworking the soil of our vocation, for weeding out selfishness and greed so that generosity may bloom.