A 6th class teacher asked her students to write an essay about what they would like to be. At home that evening, while grading the essays, the teacher read one student’s essay that made her start to cry.

Her husband walked in just at that moment. “What’s wrong?”

“Read this. It’s one of my students’ essays.”

The husband sat down and read:

“I would like to be a television set. I want to take its place and live like the TV in my house. I would have my own special place, and have my family around me. They would take me seriously when I talk. I would be the centre of attention and people would listen to me without interruption or questions.

I want to get the same special care the TV set receives even when it is not working. I would have the company of my dad when he arrives home from work, even when he is tired. And I want my mom to want me when she is sad and upset instead of ignoring me. And I want my brothers to fight to be with me.

I want my family to just leave everything aside, every now and then, just to spend some time with me. And last but not least, I want them all to be happy and entertain them. I just want to live like a TV.”

The husband looked up. “That poor kid. What horrible parents!”

The wife looked at him and said, “That essay is our son’s.”

This mom and dad discover to their dismay that the love and relationship they are trying to nurture in their home is being “choked” by the “thorns” of so many hours in front of the television and “withering” by a lack of attention or care for one another. Christ calls us to model the sower of today’s Gospel within our own homes and households: to sow seeds of encouragement, joy and reconciliation in the “earth” of our own “gardens” and doing the patient work of realizing the harvest God has promised, to trust and believe that our simplest acts of kindness and forgiveness, our humblest offers of help and affirmation may be the “seed” that re-creates and transforms our homes and hearts.