Sowing seeds

We received word this week of the sudden death of Monsignor David Cresswell, a priest of our diocese.  Monsignor Cresswell has served various parishes throughout our diocese since his Ordination in 1963, including Our Lady of Fatima in Elliot Lake and Saint James the Greater in Blind River.  For the last sixteen (16) years, he has been living in Coniston and exercising his priestly ministry among the parishioners at Saint Paul the Apostle parish.

The work of a priest is to live among the people of God, doing as Jesus did: scattering seeds on the land (Mk 4:26).  In various parishes throughout the diocese and during the time he spent in Gualan, Guatemala (from June 1965 until March 1971), Monsignor Cresswell scattered the seeds of faith.  Like the farmer in the gospel, he never knew whether those seeds would take root, but he continued to share the gift of his own faith with those he met, always encouraging them to discover the love of God in their own lives.

This is how it is for all of us.  Our task is to sow seeds.  We sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed sprouts and grows, we know not how (Mk 4:27).  It is God who inspires within our hearts the desire to know him and it is He who continues, night and day, the process of helping the seeds that we have planted to grow.  Like good gardeners, we are called to care for the seeds of faith that are sown in the hearts of those we encounter: to water them regularly with our prayer and to help them to grow through the example of our faith.

Saint Paul tells us that we must always be courageous in this task (cf 2 Cor 5:6).  It takes courage to speak about God to those around us, and it takes even more courage to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor 5:7), yet this is what we strive to do every day.  We must never allow the lights of this world to blind us to the truths that we have discovered, otherwise, we will run the risk of losing our way.  Instead, we must keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, knowing that heaven is our ultimate goal, our true homeland.

At some level, we all know this to be true, but we still face the temptation to doubt when we look around us and see that there are less and less people choosing to associate themselves with organized religion.  When we are tempted to doubt, it might help to take a step back and to remember that this is God’s church, that he is always at work, planting and transplanting the tender shoots (cf Ez 17:22) of faith he has planted within our hearts so that others can also come to know and love Him.

The funeral Mass for Monsignor David Cressell will be celebrated at Saint Paul the Apostle parish in Coniston on Wednesday morning, June 20 beginning at 10:00am.  May the Lord who called him to serve as a priest in this Diocese now welcome him home and grant him the gift of eternal life in His presence, and may the members of his family and those who are saddened by his sudden departure be comforted in the knowledge that the day he has longed for has finally come to pass.