psalm 80: take care of this vine... 2nd week advent saturday

Today we read psalm 80.  In this psalm God is depicted as a shepherd and a gardener.  We have heard a lot of times why God is a shepherd to his people, but why is he a gardener?  "Take care of this vine, and protect what your right hand has planted."  Israel, God's people is the vine and so God is the gardener.  I believe the college know what gardening is all about and what a gardener does to make the plant productive.  A gardener does so much to make the land fertile and to make the plant fruitful.  The gardener has to till the land, fertilize it, plant the seed, nourish it daily with water, be sure that it has enough sunlight, and guard it against pests and diseases.  The gardener does a lot.  God does all these things for us.  But the plant must also do its part, the seed must dare to grow, it should aim it roots down the soil and it leaves high above to reach the sunshine.  It must absorb the nutrients of the soil together with the fertilizer which the gardener cultivates around it roots.  It must cooperate with the sun and spread wide it leaves to absorb the sun's rays. Our relationship with God must also be like that.  St. Augustine once said, “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us."

In the past days I have been insistent that everything that we do we should put God as a priority and at the center of things.  It is not right to sing beautifully on stage while we sing lousily at mass; it is a misplaced when priority when we can render wonderful things for people to see and yet offer so little for God.  Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.

We must depend on God and yet we must also do our part.  We have practiced much and we have also prayed much, that is why we are blessed.  Always balance these two in life – what you can do and what God does, to rely on one's strength and effort and to rely on God's grace and power, to pray and to act, to trust in God, to trust in oneself.  In the priesthood it is important to balance these two.