June 30, 2024: Wildflowers

Have you ever walked through a field of wildflowers? It is like a riotous palette of colors that stretches to the horizon, a carpet bedazzled with precious gemstones. The illusion is one of a gateway that leads to another reality, one of tranquil beauty or a field of dreams, where nature itself is a gracious host. Planted in mystery on knolls, in crags, and untilled soil, they grow with wild abandon, watered by no effort of their own. Arrayed in splendor beyond even that of Solomon, they neither toil nor spin – Matthew 6:28-29. Their rapture of contentment seduces the eyes of all who gaze upon their radiance. And in that glance, we are invited to reflect upon who we are in the vast expanse of God’s creation.

In the humdrum or hectic pace of our lives we often fail to see the field of wildflowers in which we live. Preoccupied with a myriad of concerns, we are reluctant to let go of what blinds our vision to be fully aware of God’s abiding care for us in each moment of our lives. For you see, each of us is a wildflower in God’s eyes. We are that field planted and nurtured by God. The question that we often struggle with is whether we truly believe this.

In her poem, Wildflowers, Gaby Comprés, a poet from Santo Domingo, invites her readers to see themselves as wildflowers who are transported to places where, without effort on their part, beauty is waiting to burst forth and create an endless field of wildflowers. She writes:

Let’s be wildflowers;

let our souls be scattered by the wind.

Let us grow, wild and free, tall and brave,

in the places we dream,

in the places where our longings are filled.

Let us grow between the cracks of brokenness,

and we will make everything beautiful.

 The summer months are now upon us. Many of us will scatter far and near to find places of respite. Many will remain in the canyons of New York City. And for some, a summer vacation is a fanciful dream. No matter where we may find ourselves during the lazy or frenetic days of summer, we will experience a field of wildflowers if we are but open to it and allow God to be both the sower and cultivator of our lives.

In gazing upon the beauty of a field of wildflowers, whether we do it in person or in our mind’s eye, we take delight in the willingness of wildflowers simply to bask in the sunshine of a summer’s day. Let our prayer be that we revel in God’s gaze upon us so we may fill the cracks of brokenness and become for others a vision of hope and love.

Happy gazing! Happy summer!

Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J., Pastor