OT XI (B): Ez 17: 22-24; II Cor 5:6-10; Mk 4:26-34

Jesus’ favorite topic was "the Kingdom of God."  His first public sermon began with "The Kingdom of God is at hand", and from then on he kept talking about it, as in today's Gospel. But not a single parable fully explains all the aspects of the kingdom. Kingdom of God was this favorite theme because that is where he came to lead us.

If there is a Kingdom, there must also be a King, and if there is a King, there must be subjects. That's how he sees the Church, as a Kingdom, not merely as some kind of club. When we pray, "Thy Kingdom come," do we mean the same thing that Jesus meant when he taught us that prayer? God's Kingdom is the realm where hearts obey him out of faith and love.

If we really want to help Christ redeem the kingdom of this world by transforming it, through his grace, into the Kingdom of Christ, we have to keep hearkening to the King and carrying out his commands, even when they are uncomfortable for our selfish tendencies.

 

Jesus always used stories or parables to teach people. An argument speaks to the mind alone, but a story appeals to the whole person: mind and heart and imagination. If an argument is not understood straight away it is lost, but a story tends to stay in the memory, enlightening the mind and heart at a later time when the person is ready to grasp its meaning. We are not often, certainly not always, in the mood to hear arguments, but we are always ready to hear a story or to look at an image. By teaching in parables, he is trying to explain deeper spiritual realities using the everyday realities understood by his listeners. 

The picture painted in the Parable of the Mustard Seed by Jesus is of the humble beginnings of the Church experiencing an explosive rate of growth. While growth itself was the primary focus of the first seed parable, the mustard seed comparison emphasizes the contrast between tiny beginnings and tremendous endings.

The tiny mustard seed, growing to be a tree, symbolizes Jesus’ offer of refuge and life in God’s Kingdom. Here, Jesus uses a shrub coming from a tiny seed (Jn 12:24), to represent Kingdom growth, consistent with other tree/Kingdom references (Ez 17:23 and Dn 4:11-21).

The example of the mustard seed shows that it starts small: in Jesus’ earthly ministry it went from him to twelve disciples, then to thousands by the time narrated in the Acts of the Apostles, and to the whole world and throughout history. 

 

The Kingdom doesn’t just represent something small that has an incredible capacity for growth and expansion; like the cool shade of the mustard plant, it makes room for everyone to find rest and consolation because God wants everyone to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

The virtues that give true, lasting beauty to our lives, that give our lives meaning and deep happiness (virtues like wisdom, courage, self-control, and Christ-like love), are like the seeds in the Lord's parables. They are planted in our hearts at baptism, and as we follow and obey Christ in our daily lives, they grow and flourish.

We can all plant tiny seeds in the form of words of love, acts of encouragement, and deeds of charity, mercy and forgiveness. Parents and teachers can plant a lot of seeds in the minds of their children and students. The Holy Spirit will touch the hearts of the recipients of these seeds sown by us and He will effect the growth of the kingdom in their souls and lives. As the apostle Paul once said of his ministry, “Neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth” (1 Cor 3:7).

The Kingdom of God is the growth of God’s rule in human hearts that occurs when man does the will of God and surrenders his life to God. The seed of Faith lies dormant within each of us. When we permit the Holy Spirit to nurture it with TLC (tender loving care), it grows miraculously into gigantic proportions. The growth is slow and microscopic in the beginning. But this seed grows by using the power of the Holy Spirit, given to us through the Word of God, the Mass, the Sacraments, and prayer. As we learn God’s will from His words and try to put these words into practice, we participate in the growth of God’s Kingdom on earth, a growth which will be completed in our Heavenly life. Let’s pray today for a special anointing of the Holy Spirit to help us to be doers of the word of God, and thereby offer our lives to God and for the cause of His Kingdom.