17th Week in Ordinary Time 2025 - Monday - Growth of the Kingdom of Heaven

 In the course of his public ministry, the Lord employed parables to teach about discipleship, faithfulness, and charity.

Today’s Gospel contained two short parables to describe growth—growth in the kingdom of heaven.

Before we consider the parables, what does the Lord mean when he uses that phrase, “the kingdom of heaven”. The kingdom of heaven is a constant topic in the Lord’s teaching. The phrase is used over 30 times in the Gospel of Matthew. A number of the parables describe what the “kingdom of heaven” is like. So, it’s a multi-faceted idea. Sometimes the kingdom of heaven seems to be describing the body of believers, sometimes the dominion of God, sometimes the presence of God in the individual soul, sometimes all these things at once.

Today’s parables speak of the kingdom of God as a reality that experiences growth. It starts off small, even barely visible, even undetectable to physical sight, but it can grow, and grow even beyond our human expectations.

The small seed growing into a large bush big enough for all of the birds of the sky to dwell in its branches makes us think of the Church. The Lord’s mission in establishing the kingdom of heaven began with very small beginnings but encompasses all nations, all people, and all time.

So too with the life of charity in the individual soul. It often starts off small, the small seed planted at baptism, the first hearing and reception of the Gospel. And then it has the potential to bloom into a magnificent sight, as seen in the lives of the saints. We must certainly do all that we can to cultivate the life of the kingdom of heaven in our hearts. 

But also, this Gospel certainly challenges us to never underestimate the power and importance of small acts of charity and sharing the Gospel with single individuals. This is how the kingdom of heaven grows. Again look at the saints. Most of these people started off as uneducated unremarkable people, and became bright, shining, majestic souls because someone, often a parent, or an ordinary Catholic like you and me, took the time, took the risk, to share the Word of God with them.

I remember, Pope Benedict warning Catholics to resist what he calls “the temptation of impatience”, that is the temptation to insist on “immediately finding great success” in “large numbers”.  “For the Kingdom of God and for evangelization, the parable of the grain of mustard seed is always valid.”  This new modern phase of the Church’s evangelization mission is likely not one of immediately attracting the large masses from the secular world or people who have distanced themselves from the Church” to begin attending mass. 

Rather, start with your neighbor, the individual looking for God, looking for fulfillment in something more than the culture has to offer. Believe in the power of God to transform the mustard seed, and act accordingly, to build up the kingdom of heaven, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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Trusting in the power of God’s grace, let us bring our petitions to the Lord:

For the Church throughout the world: That she may remain faithful in planting the seeds of the Kingdom through word, sacrament, and service.

For all Christians engaged in the work of evangelization: That they may resist the temptation of impatience and find renewed hope in the slow but steady growth of God’s grace in the hearts of others.

For those who have strayed from the faith or feel distant from the Church: That through the witness of faithful individuals and small acts of love, they may rediscover the beauty and truth of the Gospel.

For those who suffer in body or spirit, especially the lonely and forgotten: That they may find shelter and hope in the branches of God’s mercy and the compassion of His people.

For the faithful departed: That the seed of faith planted in their lives may now blossom into the fullness of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven. 

God of mercy and love, hear our prayers and give us the grace to cooperate in Your work of salvation, trusting always in Your power to transform our efforts, through Christ our Lord.

3rd Sunday of Advent 2019 - Bearing the light of patient joy

On the first Sunday of Advent we asked God for the grace to prepare well during this holy season.  On the Second Sunday, last week, we heard John the Baptist urge us to make straight the pathways for the Lord. And on this third Sunday of Advent, we are urged as we prepare for the Lord’s coming to cultivate joy.

For today is Gaudete Sunday. And Gaudete is latin for the rejoice. Since the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great in the sixth century, the third Sunday of Advent has begun with that word: Gaudete. Gaudete in domino semper, rejoice in the Lord always. 

Advent purple is replaced today by Gaudete Sunday Rose, the color of the horizon at the very start of a sunrise. We rejoice because Christ, the Son, is almost here. His light is breaking into the world. And not simply in some abstract way. His light is meant to be radiating from us, as we sing and pray and prepare for Christmas and for his coming at the end of time. Non-believers and fallen away catholics should be moved and stirred by our joy at Christ’s coming. We are to be light for those who continue to dwell in darkness.

I am reminded of one of the final chapters of Mark Twain’s classic novel Tom Sawyer. The Adventurous and somewhat mischievous Tom Sawyer and his friend Becky Thatcher go out to explore a cave outside of town. The cave is full of dark caverns and twisting passages, and as they explore, they end up getting lost. Fear sets in. Their candles - the only light they have - run low. And when their candles go out. they lose track of time, they grow hungry and desperate and start wandering through the darkness, looking for the smallest glimpse of daylight. Three days pass when, they finally spot a pinprick of light far in the distance, and they follow it to freedom.

The fallen human race is like Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher lost in the dark caverns of a fallen world. They travel through dark and twisting caverns, they are starving for God, their own light is insufficient. Only the light of God breaking into their world can lead them to freedom.

And that light of God, dear Christians, has been given to you and to me, to help guide souls to freedom. Advent aims at bolstering our light. Christians who rejoice in the Lord, whose lives radiate authentic Christian joy, become beacons of light for the world.

Sadly, we know, all too well, how Christians instead of radiating with the light of God can do the opposite. Through our joylessness, our sins, setting bad Christian example, instead of leading souls to God, we turn souls away. We know, sadly, how even members of the clergy and members of the hierarchy, can cause souls to become disgusted at being members of the Church. So certainly we do penance during Advent to make up for scandal, and our own failures to shine as brightly as we should.

Gaudete Sunday is certainly one of my favorite Sunday of the Church year, because it really sums up the whole of the Christian life.  There is a permanent Gaudete Sunday quality to the whole Christian life. As we await the coming of Christ, we are to reverberate with joy as we await the return of the Lord.

Now.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually equate waiting with joy. Waiting in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, waiting in line at the grocery store.  These are not typically joyful experiences, are they?

But, Mother Church gives us the key to waiting in joyful hope in our second reading today. “Be patient, brothers and sisters” he writes, “until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.  You too must be patient.” 

Americans are not known worldwide for their patience—it is not our culture’s strongest virtue.  Patience with elderly relatives, patience with the kids, patience with spouses, patience in traffic, patience during particularly verbose homilies at Mass is not always easy. Impatience is one of the most common sins I hear in the confessional.

So St. James says patience is practiced when we remain focused on the good things to come. The farmer has his mind focus less on the period of barrenness, but on the fruit of the earth to come. He understands that grey rainy days are necessary, if he wants his crop to be healthy.

So, too, Christians practice patience by keeping our minds and hearts focused on the Lord, particularly during times of stress and frustration and suffering. By focusing on the light at the end of the tunnel, Advent and the whole of the Christian life prepares us for something yet to come. Impatience can likely be a sign that we have failed to keep our focus on the end goal, on Christ.

The natural philosophers say patience is the habit by which one can wait for some good without getting upset, without the loss of peace, irritation, or anger, without complaining, bad words, and violence. Instead, the patient person can bear “provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint.” A patient person can display “quiet, steady perseverance; even-tempered care; and diligence.”

More so, the Christian virtue of patience enables us to withstand physical and moral suffering, because our hearts and minds are fixed on and united to Christ.

The saints teach us of the importance of patience in the spiritual life.  St. Margaret Mary said that there is no other remedy for your ills but patience and submission to the will of God.  St. Francis de Sales said that Jesus endured scourging and ill treatment; he endured so many blasphemies and cruelties without saying a word, precisely to teach us patience. One spiritual writer said that each of us has enough trials and sufferings in our life to make us saints, if we but knew how to suffer them patiently.

I remember back in 2001 when I entered seminary.  8 years of seminary seemed like such a long time.  But those years of waiting and preparing, letting the tradition of the Church sink in, developing the habit of prayer, those were good years, joyful and mostly patient years.  Seminary formation is meant to change a man in preparation for a lifetime of priestly service. Sometimes that change was hard; as you may have realized, a hard-headed Italian. But joy always came when I surrendered and realized the Lord’s way is a lot better than my way. 

So too during this life, this Advent period of waiting, the Lord will change us, if we let him; if we patiently keep our minds and hearts fixed on him, we will be granted the gift of joy which nothing in the world can take away.

St. Cyprian said, “Patient waiting is necessary that we may fulfill what we have begun to be, and through God’s help, that we may obtain what we hope for and believe.”

In the Advent days we have left, turn to the Scriptures, recommit to daily prayer, confess your impatience, patiently serve the poor, that you may shine with the light of joyful hope for the glory of God and salvation of souls.