Today's Gospel always reminds me of the time I first encountered the possibility of error in the Bible (not doctrinal error, mind you, just inexact information). I was about nine, and was the proud and hope-filled possessor of some seed packets, purchased from the local "dime" store. Among the flowers I hoped would grow in our freshly prepared patch of backyard were zinnias. I ripped open the packet and poured the seeds into my hand: hundreds of tiny black dots settled into my palm. And I remembered the words of the Holy Gospel, "the mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds."
I had seen mustard seeds (in those little acrylic bubbles). I looked again at the seeds in my hand. These had to be the smallest of all seeds.
Faced with the obvious fact that Jesus was plain wrong about seeds, I was in a quandary. Did Jesus, who was all-knowing, not know about zinnias? Was the Bible wrong about other things besides the relative sizes of seeds? Did any grown-ups know about this? I piously decided to ignore the discrepancy, but every time I hear this Gospel, well... now you know!
Monday, July 28, 2008
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4 comments:
Some folks would say that "proverbially" the mustard seed is the smallest....but there are smaller seeds. Did zinnias even exist in those times in Galilee? Take fleas (please) they are small and used implicitly to describe as small as things can be. Does this restore your misgivings as a nine year old? The Bible is alive and well.
Thanks for this post. I'm going to use this as a side discussion I've been having on my blog with Protestants about sola scriptura. One of the arguments that came up there is that we can know what books are inspired without the Church because of their historic and scientific accuracy. Of course, this is somewhat of a circular reasoning to them because they base what they believe science to be around what the Bible says...but hopefully this will convince them to think some about why the Canon of scriptures is such as it is.
Sr. Anne...
Hahaha...I did the same thing! :)
Ah, the innocence of a child.
~Chelsea
I am so happy to find out that I was not the only child with this problem...I guess the good Dominicans Friars and Carmelite Sisters let us ask those difficult questions and had ready, intelligent answers...and when you think of it, the seed of human beings is so small it takes special "modern" equipment to discover the wonders there in! Sts. Albert the Great and Thomas Aquinas would love to be around today to discover just how marvelous our universe is! I am happy that our Catholic faith joyfully (and usually) allows science to enhance creation rather than diminish it! Our God is amazing...
Father Fred, CMF
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