29 OCTOBER (Lk 13,18-21)

We can understand according to fullness of truth the parable of the mustard seed, letting ourselves be helped by a passage from the prophet Hosea.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the Lord; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our god,’ to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion.” I will heal their defection, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; He shall strike root like the Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; They shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree” – Because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the Lord, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them (Hos 14,2-10).

The kingdom of heaven is this very tiny seed perennially sprinkled by the Lord. since God pours out on it all the abundance of his grace and truth, the seed can become nothing but a large tree. This is the wonderful reality of God’s kingdom. Its vitality is not in man, in the things that he does. It is only in its God and Lord. It is as if the Lord himself were the vital germ of the seed and also the water, the sun and every other element necessary for its harmonious growth.

Man is asked only one thing: sowing the word of the Lord, this incorruptible seed from which the kingdom of God comes. When the pastoral stops sowing the good seed of the word, it is in all similar to a farmer who instead of sowing the good seed, goes into a sand pit, fills his bag and then goes and spreads it on his fields. He can also work, sweat and consume all his energy. Never will a single stalk of wheat grow on his field. He has not sown. He only shed sand. If a farmer never comes to such foolishness, unless he is completely melted in his mind and heart, why do pastors do it, sowing human words, instead of just the Word of God in hearts? Is not this perhaps great foolishness?

For the reading of the second parable, that of yeast, we will use one of St. Paul’s thought. It manifests it both in the First Letter to the Corinthians and in that to the Galatians.

Your boasting is not appropriate. Do you not know that a little yeast leavens all the dough? Clear out the old yeast, so that you may become a fresh batch of dough, inasmuch as you are unleavened. For our paschal lamb, Christ, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth (1Cor 5,6-8).

You were running well; who hindered you from following (the) truth? That enticement does not come from the one who called you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident of you in the Lord that you will not take a different view, and that the one who is troubling you will bear the condemnation, whoever he may be. As for me, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished. Would that those who are upsetting you might also castrate themselves! (Gal 5,7-12).

As the leaven of evil is able to corrupt an entire community, so we need to think for the yeast of the good. However, it need a lot of perseverance. Instead, we do not persevere, we give up, we get tired and we fall short. We fail.

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.”

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us persevering yeast.