The parables Jesus used often left people wondering. Sometimes they were like a riddle, that you kept puzzling over in your mind, looking for the answer. What made them particularly interesting was that he used images from everyday life. So at one level the parables seemed to be dealing with the things that were familiar. But at another level the people knew that the point he was making was more profound. All of the parables spoke about the kingdom of God. This is a somewhat strange notion, which can be hard to grasp. People naturally ask where this kingdom can be found and what it looks like. Many people wanted to equate the kingdom with the church. But we now know that the kingdom is bigger than the church; but also that the church should be a sign of the kingdom. Another question people ask about the kingdom is when it will be visible. Some people say that it is something for the future, for the end of the world. But others want to say that it is here already.
The parables we have heard today shed light on
these questions. The image of a man
throwing seed on the ground and waiting for it to ripen tells us that the
kingdom has already begun and is still being formed, but that it is not yet
complete. The preaching of Jesus is a
bit like the man who goes out and throws seed on the ground. The seed sinks into the soil and remains
hidden, but in this hidden place it is sprouting and growing. The man doesn’t do anything to make it
grow. He doesn’t have to dig it up each
night to see if it is growing. In fact,
if he did that it would die. The man
needs to be patient, and to let the seed do what it is supposed to do. Even when the shoot breaks through the earth
the man doesn’t sit there and watch it grow.
Its growth is imperceptible. Yet
if he goes about his business and perhaps looks at the shoot every week he will
notice that it is growing. This is the
miracle of growth.
The kingdom is like this. We can’t see it growing around us. Yet if we look back over history we do see
signs that it has penetrated human hearts and many cultures of the world. We can think, for example, of the slow
evolution of cultures under the influence of the preaching of Jesus. Many things that we take for granted and that
we are vigilant to see that we don’t lose are signs of the kingdom bearing
fruit. Think of the value that many
cultures place on human dignity, or the value they place on caring for the
poorest, the neediest and the most vulnerable.
Think of the sense of justice that pervades Christian civilisation. These are all things that were at the heart
of Jesus’ preaching. They are signs of
the kingdom. They have been the
hallmarks of the pastoral care the church has exercised in various locations
around the world.
We know that these things didn’t suddenly appear
in the cultures of the world. Only
slowly did they become common place. We
can take these aspects of life for granted today, but they have been evolving
generation after generation. We also
know that they are still evolving, and that it is possible to lose these fruits
of the kingdom. The kingdom takes root
where there are hearts that have been converted and that continue to listen to
the gospel of God. Our own hearts are
like the soil in which the seed was planted. Over a lifetime the kingdom grows
in us so that we live more and more according to God’s plan.
It is easy to become impatient about the coming of
the kingdom. Any of us can look around
and think that the world does not seem to be getting any better. In fact, sometimes it seems that we are
getting worse rather than improving. At
these times we face many temptations.
One is to give up and say that God makes no difference to our world, so
why believe. Another temptation is to
say that we must get out there and do something about it. As we
puzzle over the meaning of the parable it seems that neither of these responses
is going to make any difference. The
parable calls us rather to maintain our faith and our hope. It tells us that God continues to be at work
in our world, even if we can’t see where or how. All it requires of us is that we listen to
his word and let it penetrate deep into our hearts. There it will change us and show us the way
forward. Jesus tells us, at another
place in the gospel, that the Holy Spirit is like the wind: we might hear its
sound, but we don’t know where it comes from our where it is going. This is how the kingdom comes to birth –
through the action of the Holy Spirit.
The parable invites us to trust the Holy Spirit.
The promise is there for us to receive. We hear it developed in the other parable of
today’s gospel: the mustard seed which becomes a great bush. What may seem like something small and
totally insignificant can become something magnificent. In the Scriptures God always chose the weak
and made them strong; he chose the youngest and made him the king of a great
nation. When we are tempted to think
that the influence of the kingdom of God is weak or that it is diminishing in
our society, we need to remember that the Spirit continues to be at work,
unseen by us and that slowly, very slowly, leaves will appear on the tree, and it
will be so luxurious that it will be a shelter for all. Let’s allow ourselves to grow to become that
tree.
Fr. Gerard Kelly
