The 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 16, 2024

Mark 4, 26–34

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”  He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

The Lord Jesus tells us two parables revealing the mysterious ways of grace.

In extraordinary cases, the Lord God sends us dreams or visions or sudden inspirations.  Ordinarily, he works in us in hidden ways as we go about performing our daily duties and fulfilling our obligations.  Very often we do not even notice what he is doing in us or with us, yet by practicing virtue in all we say and do we make ourselves available to him as fit instruments as he carries out his will.

“It is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land.”  In the first parable the farmer is seeding his field.  He does so at the proper time in the proper season and relies on the help of God for the seed to germinate and for his crop to rise out of the ground.  He does not understand how this happens (and it is many centuries before anyone does) but this was what he learned from his father and what he had seen for himself over the years.  This is the faithful believer who cooperates with God’s grace day in and day out, not having a theologian’s understanding — “he knows not how” — but with rugged perseverance in his faith.  Results do not appear immediately but over the course of time: “first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear”.  The farmer does not stand by and watch his crop like an impassive spectator, but he weeds and waters in the heat of the day throughout the season.  The faithful Christian prays for the success of his efforts and for them to accord with the will of God, and he strives in his work to carry his will out.  “And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”  The moment the grain is ripe the farmer sets out to harvest.  This work is intense and unrelenting.  It must be completed before the rain comes because wet grain in a barn is liable to spontaneously combust.  This harvest benefits not only the farmer but the community around him for its members depend on him for their bread.  And so, cooperating with grace, the faithful believer completes his task, growing in sanctity and doing his part in converting the world to Jesus Christ.  In the end, he is “harvested” when he has grown to full stature as a saint and enters safely into the “barns” of heaven.

“It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.”  Grace is invisible, and until the results of grace make themselves visible, we may not know it is even present.  Still, it is most powerful, as can be discerned through what it brings about: “[The mustard plant] springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” This plant is both the individual believer and the Holy Church.  What begins for the faithful Christian in baptism ends in a life so Christ-like that non-believers who wander through their lives are attracted to it and seek Christ through him.  The Church began with the Holy Spirit coming upon a band of fishermen and others who, only a few weeks before, had run for their lives from the authorities of their insignificant locale.  Now it is spread across the world and has changed history.  Every day lost but seeking souls come to her for peace and for the safety of their souls, and they find it in her.

Let us pray that we may cooperate humbly and perseveringly with the grace of God on whatever work he gives us, wherever he places us.  Very little of the work is outwardly glamorous, but it is the work our Father gives us, and its fulfillment brings us eternal rewards.