What do we need to be happy?

 

Today's readings pose the question, what do we need to be happy? Moses, with God's guidance, had just led the people out of the slavery that they were suffering in Egypt, but they soon began complaining that despite all the suffering in Egypt they had more food there. I am reminded of a time when I visited a neighbouring priest in Brasil. He kept five birds in a large cage and one day the cage door was left open and the birds escaped and flew away. Next day three of the birds returned to the cage. They valued easy food over freedom. God showed his great love for the people and despite their complaining, he gave them meat in the form of quails and manna which was like bread.(Exodus 16:1-5, 9-15). In the gospel we hear the well-known parable of the sower and the seed.(Matthew 13:1-9) The seed represents the Word of God which comes to us in so many different ways. God speaks to us through the gospels, through the sacraments especially the Eucharist. But his message also comes to us through the people in our lives when we experience their goodness and when we live and share together. God's word is sown in the soil of our daily life in so many different ways. The parable questions us. Am I like the fertile soil that receives word and lets it grow within me or am I sometimes like the rocky, shallow or weedy soil that does not give the Word a chance to take root? Lord, help me to be open to all the ways in which you speak to me so that, in your name, I may respond by producing your fruit of faith, kindness and peace to those around me.