Friday of 3rd Week, even numbered week “What can we say that the kingdom of God is like? It is the smallest of all seeds which give a huge tree.Jesus said This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.”
The reality of God’s Kingdom is made manifest by a surge of Life and the image of the grain of wheat illustrates this very well. It is a reality that goes beyond our comprehension, we perceive its growing and developing yet it is something that goes beyond anyone of us who believes his own life belongs to himself.
Jesus is the first person to have sown with his own Life. He can now see the Kingdom grow as if by itself. The Word that is made free animates other bodies which are made up from it, propagating the Good News.
The dimension of time and space are approached in the Gospel for the growth of our spiritual life : ’the earth produces grass, then the ear, then the grain full of grain in the ear.’ Time is a necessary factor for growth. ’For it is time for the harvest’. In the growth of the seed can also be seen the time of the harvest. it is what is at its term. So this announcement has its finality, an end to it, it doesn’t have any meaning in itself. There is not only the glorious hope of morning, but the evening will come, it’s a matter of considering the end, the finality. The finality of this announcement is love that is shared on a a universal level, and for this, what is needed is love for the Father by all, recognition, to go on to another level.
“Jesus said also, ’What can we say that the kingdom is like? What a parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.”
Jesus takes the comparison of the smallest seed! It will become a huge tree in which the birds of the air will come and make their nests.
When we have given God our time and space, everything that is at our disposal, God can take ’body’ in us.
We need to respect the time and space for the seed to grow, whether we sleep or are awake. Growth comes about whether we think about it or not. Finality comes back with the mustard seed giving refuge to the ’birds of the air’. Their only finality is to live freely, graciously and peacefully and to enjoy their existence.
It is already the announcement of the Passion which will become a passage for Jesus and for many after Him. When this comes, God’s mercy takes everything to itself and never ceases to act. If we dwell in the will of God, God’s Kingdom will come to pass.
Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves."
We understand the promise made to us the Word has begun its work, we know its end and there is the passage to be gone through so that it can come about.
Jesus knows the way right from the beginning, He has his disciples understand it ’to the extent they were capable of understanding it.’
Jesus offers his Way to us, taking our desire for peace.For unity and life to come about, we must accept to carry weaknesses, hatred in us and in others, humbly; to lose our life for it to be born again in ourselves and in others.
Let us receive this promise of Life, let us receive the ’yes’ to the life it carries, if indeed we feel we can become seeds of wheat that are offered up to the Father.
When we serve Jesus humbly on the way He took, it brings us great hope and his parable illustrates this hope.
We wish to remain in adoration and in a state of vigilance, to constantly seek the will of the Father so that God’s life may progress in us.
Jesus is the smallest child of all men and he is going to grow within us. The mystery of the Word made flesh is announced, seeds of the Word are going to be developed in our lives provided we don’t put up any obstacles to this. Our human earth is going to be transformed, we need to remain in the sun of God and endlessly take the means to purify our hearts.