“All the leaves and acorns are falling from the oak outside my office, and as I was walking back up to church with some seventh graders from the parish school, I stopped to pick up an acorn and said, ‘Boys, look at this acorn. Then look at that oak tree. How could an oak tree grow from this tiny little nothingness of an acorn? It’s amazing.’
“They stopped and looked for a moment and thought it through. Then I added, ‘The acorn is you and me. The oak tree is the saint God wants us to be. The saint God wants us to be is as different from the person we are now as this acorn is different from the oak. The oak comes from the acorn and it is the fulfillment and final destiny of the acorn. Everything required to become an oak is locked into this acorn. Everything necessary for you and me to be a saint is locked inside our hearts and minds.’”
In a recent commentary, Father Dwight Longenecker (parish priest at Our Lady of the Rosary Parish, Greenville, SC), reflected on this comparison – including one major difference: we have free will and the acorn does not.
To access Fr. Longenecker’s complete post, please visit:
Standing on My Head: Be an Oak (8 NOV 13)
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