It is like a mustard seed

Rm 8,18-25; Ps 125; Lk 13,18-21
29 OCTOBER

Our God works in time. For him, one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like a day. He started with just one man and one woman. Today there are about seven billion people. Scripture does not know polygenism even for reasons of redemption.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring’ (At 17,22-28).

For it was fitting that he, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader to their salvation perfect through suffering. He who consecrates and those who are being consecrated all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them “brothers,” saying: “I will proclaim your name to my brothers, in the midst of the assembly I will praise you”; and again: “I will put my trust in him”; and again: “Behold, I and the children God has given me.” Now since the children share in blood and flesh, he likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life. Surely he did not help angels but rather the descendants of Abraham; therefore, he had to become like his brothers in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people. Because he himself was tested through what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested (Heb 2,10-18).

Even the history of salvation begins with only one, that is, from Abraham. Abraham begot Isaac. From Isaac the blessing passed to Jacob. About a hundred years were needed to reach the twelve sons of Jacob. About a thousand and eight hundred to get to Christ Jesus. Two thousand years have passed from Christ the Lord and still the mission is at the beginning. Rather, we are seeing in our times a frightening regression of faith in Christ the Lord. Idolatry and immorality are consuming all the once Christian countries.

What does Jesus want to teach us with the two parables of the mustard seed and the yeast? The essential truth for the spread of his kingdom on earth. If every one of his disciples sows the Word of the Gospel, in grace and in the Holy Spirit, the Word will grow in the heart and produce fruits in due time. If the disciple becomes a leaven of truth, justice, charity and holiness, little by little other people will be fermented by him and become in turn ferment. Growth and fermentation take time. Sometimes years, sometimes decades. However, the Christian knows that if he sows the good seed it grows. He knows that if he is true yeast, the yeast ferments. This is the true mission of the Christian: sowing the Word. Becoming leaven of Christ in the world. If he does not sow, nothing grows. If he is not yeast, nothing will be fermented for him. The mission is the fruit of his being.

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.”

If today we do not grow, the causes must be sought in the non-sowing of the Word. If the kingdom does not spread it is a sign that the Christian is not a leaven of Christ the Lord. Since the mission is from the Christian’s being, we are all called to become true in being.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints arrange that the Christian finds the truth of being God’s Kingdom.