Homily: Monday of the 17th Week in OT 2015 - Parables of Growth

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses two short parables to describe the growth of the kingdom: growth of the Church throughout the world, and growth that occurs in our heart.  The parable of the mustard seed shows that at first the kingdom of God appears very small, in seed form, but from this tiny seed a great bush emerges becoming so big that birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.  Jesus recalls here an Old Testament description of God’s kingdom: Ezekiel in particular foretold how Israel would gather the nations like a mighty cedar gathers birds; and now Jesus uses this image to show that the kingdom, despite its small beginnings, will fulfill Israel’s mission—all nations, all peoples will gather in the tree of the New Israel.

The second parable continues this theme of unimpressive beginnings yielding tremendous growth.  The kingdom of heaven is likened to yeast mixed with a batch of dough.  The small amount of yeast causing the dough to expand and rise again points to the kingdom: despite its inconspicuous beginnings and with a hidden dynamism like yeast in dough.  Look how one crucified jewish carpenter and his small band of followers have shaped human history.

Over the centuries the Church has experienced tremendous growth, starting out with a small number of Apostles in Jerusalem, and growing to exist in nearly every corner of the globe.  In our own day, the western world has seen a great falling away, and hearts seem to be unresponsive to the Gospel call.  But God is working in human hearts to bring them to Christ. 

And ultimately that is where the seed of the kingdom, the yeast of the kingdom, first begins to work: in the human soul.  We must never underestimate the great power of sharing the truth of the Gospel with unbelievers. We’ve seen this throughout the centuries in the lives of the saints.  Often, unknown, uneducated, unremarkable people become bright, shining, majestic souls which glorify God because someone, often a parent, shared the Word of God with them.

Pope Benedict has warned 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 to the secular world will not be “immediately attracting the large masses that have distanced themselves from the Church”, rather, we need “to dare, once again and with the humility of the mustard seed, to leave up to God the when and how it will grow”. 

However, we Christians need to act as the yeast in society.  Just as the faith needs to permeate every dimension of our lives, Christians need to permeate every dimension of society, bringing the Gospel into every corner of civic and family life, so that it can be transformed from within. 

So we mustn’t lose heart nor lose sight of our goal, which is always the glory of God and salvation of souls.