Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Fr Dominic’s Homily
Today we have two short parables from Jesus that are as ever not easy to understand. They are enigmatic in nature – in other words they conceal more than they reveal.
The first parable is about the mysterious seed. It slowly germinates overnight and starts to sprout leaves.
The farmer needs to have patience and wait. He has no real control over how it grows. All he has done is to have planted the seed and given it the right conditions. In other words it is a mysterious process. The seed seems to have an innate power that is invisible and incomprehensible.
Jesus is using this parable to explain what the kingdom of heaven is like to the crowds around him. The seeds are sown in the hearts of people and then time is needed.
The kingdom grows of its own power – we can help in some ways but ultimately God controls it. Like in nature God is the primary cause. There is a mysterious and supernatural element associated with it.
Then he goes on to speak about the tiny mustard seed that starts in a lowly humble way but then grows into the biggest shrub of them all – the mustard tree that many different birds shelter in.
This too explains the nature of the Church which started with 12 disciples and now we have 1.2 billion Catholics around the world from many nations.
We have heard these parables so often that they have become familiar in our minds and we think there is nothing strange about them. But we should remember that they are aimed at first century Jews and they would be quite surprised at hearing them. Why is that?
Well in the first reading we hear about the magnificent cedar trees of Lebanon. Now these trees were well known and would rise to over 130 feet in height. They were used as an analogy of greatness, strength and grandeur. They had a durable quality.
Israel was being compared with the Cedars of Lebanon in that a new sprout was being grafted from the line of David that had been cut. This was to represent the new line of David that would form the messianic Kingdom.
When the Jews listened to this parable of Jesus they expected him to compare the kingdom of God to one of these mighty Cedars of Lebanon that was glorious in all aspects. So they were shocked when they heard Jesus compare it with a simple mustard tree that grows to maybe only 8 foot high.
But Jesus is making a clear point. That you cannot compare the Kingdom of God on earth (which is the Church) with the all the great nations of the world which is what the mighty Cedar tree was being compared to.
In other words the church will start off in a small and humble way but will soon spread and become powerful but in Gods way and not in man’s way. There will be an unexpected and supernatural and mysterious power associated with it that comes from only God himself.
We mustn’t place limitations on what God can or cannot do.
At the time that Jesus was speaking these parables the emperor of Rome was persecuting these newly formed Christians in terrible ways. However, now when we hear the name of Rome we think only of the Vatican and the Pope. The mighty emperors have been cut down and exist no more.
The Church grows according to Gods plan and not ours.
So how does all this apply to us today? Well, it reminds us that Gods plans are always better than our own dreams.
We can often be tempted to give up in one way or another. There are so many pressures and difficulties in life. But in the end all we have to do is plant the seeds around us and keep the book open.
We don’t write our own story - God is in control and he will keep writing the story for us in his mysterious and supernatural and unexpected ways.
Remember the story of St Monica and her son Augustine. She prayed for 17 years for her son’s conversion and he eventually became one of the greatest theologians and Fathers of the church.
So let us pray for the patience to wait for the growth of Gods plan to sprout from the seeds we have planted around us and to trust in Gods personal plans for each and every one of us.