Happy Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch! This little bit of wisdom comes directly from him.
He was a first century bishop. Traditions holds that he was the child that Jesus drew to himself in Mark 9:37, “whoever receives one child such as this receives me”. He is also connected to Apostle John. A bishop in Syria for over 40 years he was arrested and transported to Rome to be martyred by wild beasts in front of a cheering crowd.
“Avoid the noxious weeds.” This quote comes from one of the letters he wrote to his churches on his way to his death.
https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?id=3836
I love this imagery as it is perfect for our work in creating our own gardens for the Lord through our programs.
WHAT WEEDS ARE GROWING YOUR GARDEN?
I am not sure what your weeds might look like but we all have them. Those recurring bad habits or even sins that we just can’t seem to be rid of. We make promises to ourselves and God, head to confession, and on and on. But there we are again, watching a weed grow in the garden of our soul that we want so much to be beautiful. He writes:
“Avoid the noxious weeds. Their gardener is not Jesus Christ because they are not planting of the Father…All those that may yet change their mind and return to the unity of the Church will likewise belong to God, and thus lead a life acceptable to Jesus Christ.”
My advice to keeping our noxious weeds at bay within our lives and souls comes from actual gardening advice. General advice for tackling weeds in our gardens includes weeding by hand, overfill an area with better plants to push the weeds out, and spread some mulch.
FILLING YOUR GARDEN WITH SOMETHING BETTER
When it comes to spiritual weeds this means pulling out those habits that have become noxious weeds in our day. You know the list already: too much time on our phones or computers, on YouTube, binge watching anything instead of caring for ourselves, our families and our homes. We all know what it is like to realize we’ve wasted an hour watching cat videos. There other habits/noxious weeds need to grabbed one at a time and just ripped out. You know what yours are and a trip to confession will always help.
Overfilling an area with better flowers might be replacing those stupid cat videos with a visit to some good Catholic sites. We all know Ascension Presents and Bishop Barron but another favorite of mine is Called to More with Fr. Columba Jordan, CFR. Fr. Columba’s videos are typically under 10 minutes and his Irish accent will pull you in and make you smile.
Mulching is simply smothering your weeds with something better for the soil. Much like overfilling, make sure you are surrounding yourself with good stuff. Daily prayer, frequent Mass, Confession, good books, good music and good friendships. Noxious weeds and noxious habits can’t survive in an area where there is so much love, joy and virtue.
BUT ARE ALL WEEDS BAD?
What about dandelions? Aren’t those weeds? I know, I know one of our virtues – eutrapelia – has as its flower the dandelion. It is considered a noxious weeds by many but not in my world. It was chosen on purpose as eutrapelia is defined as the golden mean between buffoonery and boorishness. It is all about knowing how to restore yourself in a meaningful way and that will vary from person to person, just like the enjoyment of a dandelion.
St. Thomas Aquinas tells us eutrapelia is mental relaxation and honorable fun; hence, the dandelion. For me, this ‘weed’ brings forth images of a fistful of flowers from a child and the blowing of puff to send its floaters flying in the wind. It also can be eaten in salads and used to make wine. A weed to some, a blessing to others.
For good gardeners, some weeds are just left alone. In my yard, it is the dandelions; my husband resists the urge to be rid of them because of my love for them.
For our analogy, are there weeds you might be able to ignore? Yes, those are habits some might say are wrong or the ones Satan wants to shame you with but aren’t actually sinful.
For me? The first one that comes to mind is my occasional habit of leaving dinner dishes until the morning. For some people, cleaning the kitchen is absolutely necessary and those who don’t are just wrong. Housekeeping articles tell me that it will make my mornings harder. Satan likes to make me feel lazy. Oh, well. My family is in the living room, it’s too nice to be inside or I’m just too tired. The dishes can wait.
So, be kind to yourself in regards to the weeds you might have. Just like building virtue on virtue, taking care of one bad habit often leads to you tackling another. And some of those weeds Satan wants you to shame you with are just the dandelions in your life. Prayerful time with Christ will help you discern.
As final encouragement let’s move from a garden to an orchard with St. Ignatius of Antioch as he tells us:
“We recognize a tree by its fruit, and we ought to be able to recognize a Christian by his action. The fruit of faith should be evident in our lives, for being a Christian is more than making sound professions of faith. It should reveal itself in practical and visible ways. Indeed it is better to keep quiet about our beliefs, and live them out, than to talk eloquently about what we believe, but fail to live by it.”
(Images: Wikicommons – GrammarFascist – Own work and Erlend Schei)