Sunday before Theophany; Synaxis of the Seventy Holy Apostles; Our Venerable Father Theoctistus, Hegumen of the Cucomo Monastery in Sicily.
2 Timothy 4:5-8; Mark 1:1-8.
Read Mark 1:1-8
Beginnings are important. Like each kind of plant growing out of its seed, things become what they are in their beginning. The many analogies involving plants Jesus used in his parables show that spiritual life is as organic as physical life, having an interdependent coordination of parts and processes essential to the life of the whole.
But not all organic processes are continuous. There are few activities more essential to growing plants than weeding. There is nothing more discontinuous than uprooting a plant that is a weed, but it is essential to the organic process of the plants we intend to grow.
The gospel of Jesus Christ began with John the Baptist preparing His way by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance is more than just regret; it’s a fundamental reorientation of one’s whole life, seeking to repair the damage of sin and live in God’s grace. That necessitates the uprooting of some things in our lives and the planting or replanting of others.
Any good farmer or gardener knows that weeding isn’t just something we do at the beginning. The quality and quantity of a harvest depends on weeding being a timely ongoing activity. Our relationship with it begins as repetitive but necessary hard work, but as we continue in it, spiritual weeding becomes a richly rewarding experience of tending to self-care as we prepare the way of the Lord, making straight his paths in our lives.