Bush Flying in Alaska – Fr. Leo's Benevolent Blog!

[Greetings, Church Fans! I had a great time out in fish camp in an undisclosed location in western Alaska. There are a couple of pics at the end to give you an idea of how we get our protein here in the Great Land.]

One nice thing about parables is that they lend themselves to multiple levels of interpretation and thus one can derive many different levels of meaning. So it is with the Parable of the Sower.

Lesson #1: The seed is the Word and how fruitful it is depends on the ground on which it falls. If it falls on the path it gets eaten up. If it falls on Rocky ground it doesn’t last. If it falls in thorns it gets choked off. But if it falls on good soil it yields 30, 60 or 100 fold. As disciples, if we want to be fruitful, we have till the soil of our souls to be able to receive the Word so that it can grow in our hearts.

Lesson #2: That tilling the soil of our hearts takes time. When I look at my own life, I know that I can identify my own heart with each of the different types of soil. There were times that I was the path. There were also times where I was a flash in the pan Catholic. There were times when the cares of the world choked off the Word. But eventually, I was ready to receive God’s Word and let it do its thing.

Lesson #3: The Sower’s primary job is to spread the Word. Period. I’m amazed at how prodigal the Sower is in the sowing. He just goes about throwing seed everywhere without seeming to pay any attention to where it lands. I don’t know about you, but when I plan a garden, every seed or start gets its own special place in the garden. Not so with the Word of God. We must also see ourselves as Sower’s of the Word, but the lesson here is very clear. Our job is not to worry about success, but simply to spread the Word in our neighborhoods, schools, workplaces and wherever else we happen to be. We are not to be concerned with what happens after that. But we must sow the Word so that it can find good soil to grow.

As we each write the parable of our life, the Parable of Sower is a good reminder for each of us that we are both soil and Sower, but in the end it is God who makes it grow.

– Fr. Leo

And now… the fishing pics

Probably one of the biggest red (sockeye) salmon out there. 15.2 pounds (7 kg).

Joy the Dog is ready for adventure. “Dog is my copilot?”

Dave and Barb at the stream. The weather was pretty wet.

Quiet respite by the lake. My little airplane rests in the background.

[Howdy, Church fans! Well, we are all recovered from the trip to the Holy Land. Hope you enjoyed the ride. Deacon John is preaching this week, but I will be covering St. Elizabeth’s this evening before I blast off the the Canon Law convention in Cleveland. If you want to catch the livestream of that, you can go to their Facebook page by clicking here; https://www.facebook.com/SaintElizabethAnnSetonParishAnchorage

In the meantime, here’s my thoughts on today’s gospel with an added bonus at the end.

It was not an easy thing to be a leper in Jesus’ day. Unlike today, where the use of sulfates has pretty much eradicated the effects, and the stigma, of the disease, to be a leper in the first century was to be completely outcast from society. Not only were you physically disfigured and rather smelly, you were ritually unclean as well. This meant that you could not worship with the believing community. Indeed, you were seen as cursed because of some sin of yours or a recent ancestor.

Two grateful lepers are offered for our consideration in this week’s scripture readings, both are Gentiles. The first is Naaman the Syrian. You may recall that he was a general of the army of the King of Aram. At first, he was disappointed that Elisha did not do some outrageous ritual. Instead, he just had him bath in the Jordan seven times. But at the advice of his servant, he did and was cleansed. His gratitude knew no bounds.

The ten lepers that approach Jesus, also in Samaria. Jesus is even less dramatic than Elisha. He simply has them show themselves to the priests to verify that they are now ritually pure and the curse lifted. They go off to do what he says and are healed on the way.
So why the big deal about the Samaritan leper who comes back to give thanks? If you look at it on the face of it, the other nine, apparently Jews, were obedient and presumably did go and show themselves to the priests, just as Jesus instructed them. The Samaritan does not follow instructions. Instead, he returns to give thanks.

The lesson here is that gratitude is the higher virtue. Once they were cured, they could all move about freely anywhere they wanted. They could have gone to the priests first or they could have returned and given thanks first. Only the Samaritan gets it right.
As Christians, when we realize what we have been given, and what we have been forgiven, our first response should always be grateful. It is in the warmth of this gratitude that all our other acts of charity and duty take on luster of grace.

BONUS!

As many of you know, I fly a little airplane around the Alaskan wilderness to many secret fishing holes and a few cabins that people let me use in their kindness. It is a float equipped Citabria 7GCBC with a 160 horse-Lycoming I0-360. It is great for getting me wherever I want to go. Here are some pics of the past summer. Enjoy.

Category: Bush Flying in Alaska

Growing and Sowing the Word (and some fishing pics)

Two Grateful Lepers