IT IS LIKE A MUSTARD SEED

Eph 5,21-33; Ps 127; Lk 13,18-21
30 OCTOBER

What is there smaller than a word? Yet with one word the earth can be destroyed. One word creates life in a heart. One word causes death.

If you blow upon a spark, it quickens into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth! Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many. A meddlesome tongue subverts many, and makes them refugees among the peoples; It destroys walled cities, and overthrows powerful dynasties. A meddlesome tongue can drive virtuous women from their homes and rob them of the fruit of their toil; Whoever heeds it has no rest, nor can he dwell in peace. A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue smashes bones; Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue. Happy he who is sheltered from it, and has not endured its wrath; Who has not borne its yoke nor been fettered with its chain; For its yoke is a yoke of iron and its chains are chains of bronze! Dire is the death it inflicts, besides which even the nether world is a gain; It will not take hold among the just nor scorch them in its flame, But those who forsake the Lord will fall victims to it, as it burns among them unquenchably! It will hurl itself against them like a lion; like a panther, it will tear them to pieces. As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth; As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words. Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush (Sir 28,12-28).

St. James tells us that the word of man draws its power of evil and death from the Gehenna of fire. It is as if the man was connected with the heart of Satan.

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you realize that we will be judged more strictly, for we all fall short in many respects. If anyone does not fall short in speech, he is a perfect man, able to bridle his whole body also. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot’s inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. This need not be so, my brothers. Does a spring gush forth from the same opening both pure and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can salt water yield fresh (Jm 3,1-12).

If the Christian is connected to the heart of Christ, his word, a very small seed and very small yeast, will grow excessively and produce true life. Instead, if his word is connected with the heart of Satan, death will always reign in his footsteps.

Then he said, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a person took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and ‘the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.'” Again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed (in) with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

The Christian must not worry about the great works to be done and not even wish to see the fruits of his missionary work instantly. Jesus asks him only one thing: spreading the seed of his word in the hearts, put the leaven of his Gospel in the mass of the world. This is enough for Jesus to make his kingdom grow and bear much fruit. Is not the kingdom of God destroyed by the false word of Christians today?

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, unite us to the heart of Christ to always say his Word.