The first reading from Hebrews tell us that “after you had been enlightened, you endured a great contest of suffering. …You need endurance to do the will of God and receive what He has promised.” Probably some of us have engaged in conversations about our personal struggles to a friend and at times complaining that keeping the faith is hard.
Reading the passages from Hebrews, I realize that my faith walk is not really that difficult. I do understand that we struggle a lot, but we must endure. Despite the hardships, the reward will be great and the promise of “possessing life” encouraged the early Christian community, as well as us today. This reward for faithfulness has remained constant.
Today’s gospel is about the Parable of the Mustard Seed which I think connects to that promise. The mustard plant described in Mark, often grew to such large proportions and became the largest plant on earth. This relates to our knowledge that from a small beginning the Church grew and became so large that people flocked to it like birds. From a small group of early Christians, it grew to over a billion members today. In the end, the Church is there to help us possess the Kingdom of God. We need only remain committed, intentional disciples of Jesus. It is clear that these two scriptural passages from the Letter to the Hebrews and Mark’s gospel are encouraging and exhorting us to persevere. This is our daily challenge to endure in doing the will of God which will lead to what God promises, that is to grant us salvation.
We need to remember some important points to understand this parable:
First, Jesus uses the parable of the mustard seed to help explain the kingdom of heaven. It is His primary concern to save us. I am sure that even a child can understand these images in the parable about the mustard seed, which points towards the Kingdom of God as a reality that expands miraculously as our faith grows.
Second, Jesus invites us to listen with our whole hearts and to trust our destiny because He has sown the seed of faith in us. Our growth depends on our initiative to bear much fruit, though He is there to nourish us. St. Augustine has this to say, “God created us without us: but he did not will to save us without us.” (Sermo 169,11,13 L 38,923.)
Third, it seems impossible that something so small and seemingly insignificant can have such an amazing result. A word, an action, an act of charity, some little thing, can all have a big effect, maybe one that we won’t even see. It is through our dedication that we continue Christ’s mission.
Now, the Word of God encourages us to “keep the faith” by not forgetting the ways in which we shared in the sufferings of Jesus. It is obvious that the true gift we have received is not a physical thing that will fade away, but is the salvation we receive from trusting in the Lord. We keep our faith by keeping our focus and by committing our way to that of the Lord, Jesus Christ.
May St. Angela Merici, who has the love for the poor young girls and re-evangelization of families, be our model to do a small act of charity.
St. Angela, pray for us.
Fr. Arlon, osa
