This is part 2 of a 2-part series. View Part 1 here.
Recently, Pope Francis addressed this reality in his Angelus address.
In sowing, no matter how good or abundant the seed the farmer scatters, or how well he prepares the land, the plants do not sprout immediately: it takes time and it takes patience! Therefore, it is necessary that, after having sown, he knows how to wait confidently, to allow the seeds to open at the right moment and the shoots to sprout from the seed and grow, strong enough to guarantee, at the end, an abundant harvest (cf. vv. 28-29). Underground the miracle is already in progress (cf. v. 27), there is enormous development, but it is invisible, it takes patience, and in the meantime it is necessary to to keep tending the turf, watering it and keeping it clean, despite the fact that on the surface nothing seems to be happening.
I do not believe, therefore, that if we could snap our fingers and make 11,960,000 missionary disciples appear in our pews, Catholic renewal would necessarily follow closely on the heels of this miracle. Even if we were scattering seeds more broadly and effectively, we would still have to wait–perhaps for a long time–to see our numbers turn around. Numbers can be indicative of good spiritual fruitfulness. But good spiritual fruitfulness often does not show up in the numbers.
How would my pastor see the intentional outreach of my wife and me toward our neighbors? What could he reasonably expect of our apostolic activity with them? Is it at all predictable? When will it actually become measurable? Though our intentionality may not show up on an annual report, a lot of crucial, unquantifiable activity is happening in our neighborhood apostolate. The world needs lay people to live joyfully with this uncertainty. The world needs Church leaders to encourage this patient missionary lifestyle.
If I don’t have an apple tree in my yard, but immediately want to have bushels of homegrown apples, I will need to hire a backhoe to dig out the root system of a full-grown apple tree, a semi-truck and flatbed to haul it to my house, and then use the backhoe to plant it in my backyard without causing the tree serious trauma. My neighbors would gather at my house and their kids’ mouths would be agape as this dramatic planting took place. 
It might work! But no one should think that this is the normal way or timeline families should adopt if they want to have crisp apples harvested from their yard. This is no way to start an apple orchard!
The normal way is slow, requires planting, years of careful watering, supporting the tree with a stake, protecting the young trunk from hungry bunnies, pruning, and finally, years later, a few apples will appear. With patience, the harvest will be abundant. This is the normal way to get bushels of apples for my family.
Would I still encourage bishops and priests to snap their fingers? Absolutely! Until we have those missionary disciples we are dead in the water! I groan for the renewal of the Church and our evangelical strength to reach the darkness with the light of Jesus. I groan for my wonderful neighbors to know the love, peace, and freedom of Jesus’ life! But I have come to realize the truth of our Holy Father’s exhortation, “In sowing, no matter how good or abundant the seed the farmer scatters, or how well he prepares the land, the plants do not sprout immediately: it takes time and it takes patience!”
People might ask, “How have your efforts increased Mass attendance?” This question disregards the seed image Jesus uses for the Kingdom of God. It presumes the normalization of extraordinary outlier experiences of evangelization.
Pope Francis reminds us that the Church grows like a seed. Should we long for apples? Should we give ourselves to the goal of a strong apple tree bursting with fruit? Is it ok to even feel urgency about the tree’s growth? Yes! Our longing, our goals, and our urgency will drive us to the task and give us the creativity to do everything in our power. But, as Pope Francis said so beautifully, we must be patient and carry a confident expectation that our faithfulness to God’s will today will bear great fruit in his time.
Jason Simon is the President of the Evangelical Catholic. The Evangelical Catholic’s mission is to equip Catholics to live out the Great Commission. Learn more.
