THE GROWTH OF THE WORD IN US


MONDAY, SEVENTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Exod 32:15-24; Ps 106:19-23; Mt 13:1-35

The Growth of the Mustard Seed

The Lord uses another parable to explain the mystery of the kingdom of heaven. In the parable, he compared the kingdom of God to a mustard seed, which is very small when compared to other seeds. By using the analogy of a seed to speak about the word of God, he wants us to understand that the word of God has a life of its own. He affirms this vital property in another passage when he said that his words are spirit and life. These two coming together in the word of God means that the word of God is the source of spiritual life. The word is the seed of spiritual life; no one can possess a spiritual life unless he sows the word in his mind and heart. The parable implies this. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.” In the parable of the sower, Jesus explains that he is the Son of Man, who sows the spiritual seed by broadcasting it everywhere. In the parable of the mustard seed, he brings out the aspect of our cooperation with the grace of the word for its fruitfulness in our lives. We must take the word individually and plant it in our respective fields. This implies the action of believing what we heard and holding the message in our minds to understand it, and in our hearts to love and keep it.

Without this faithful cooperation with the Son of Man who sows the spiritual seed, the word of God will not germinate in us. The parable compares the word, which is the carrier of the will of the Father, and the kingdom of God, to a mustard seed. The word makes no meaning in our situation when we hear it for the first time, because we lack the spiritual faculty to appreciate the mystery contained within the word. Our generosity in listening, meditating, and contemplating the word makes the heavenly mysteries bloom in our minds and hearts, giving us a new life and a heavenly worldview. The revolution is such that every other desire within us finds its meaning and value in the spiritual life we have from the word of God. The Lord compares this revolutionary force or transformative power of the word of God to that of the yeast causing the dough to rise and ferment all over. The Evangelist sheds more light on the hidden nature of these mysteries in his reference to the prophecy. “I will speak to you in parables and expound things hidden since the foundation of the world.” The heavenly values of the word are hidden from our eyes and human understanding until we plant the word of God in our lives.

The hidden nature of the presence of God conveyed by the word of God made the children of Israel seek another god. The children of Israel could not easily comprehend the infinite and spiritual value of the presence of God with them because many of them were slaves of their senses. The words he spoke to them through terrifying sounds and sights found no home in them because they lacked depth. Hence, they easily grovelled to what their senses could perceive and comprehend. They made a god suited to their sensible desires and pleasures, as Moses discovered to his consternation. “As he approached the camp and saw the calf and the groups dancing, Moses’ anger blazed. He threw down the tablets he was holding and broke them at the foot of the mountain.” One who does not plant the word of God in his field or life would end up worshipping a graven image. Because unless the mysteries of heaven blossom in us through our planting the word firmly in our lives, we would live in ignorance of these mysteries hidden for ages, now revealed through the word for our salvation in Jesus Christ. We live sinful lives when we fail to walk deep into the mysteries of Jesus Christ. These sins we commit in ignorance, though forgiven us through the expiation offered to God by Jesus Christ, must be punished in due time. These explain the balance of justice and mercy within the permitted will of God and the mysteries of Christ.

Let us pray: O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has firm foundation, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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