To Grow The Kingdom

Gospel Reflection - Monday, July 28th

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing.

This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet:
“I will open my mouth to speak in parables;
I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world.”
— Matthew 13:31-35

The main lesson from today’s Gospel —at least as far as I understand it—, is the remarkably fast growth of the Kingdom of God, after beginning from such humble origins. Jesus compares the Kingdom to “the smallest of seeds”. This doesn’t mean that the Kingdom will always be small, but rather that even if the number of believers are comparatively few, as it was at the time of Jesus, the Gospel will spread and grow.

The spread of the Gospel defies all logic, and it’s only made possible by the Holy Spirit and by the grace of God. No mere human effort could accomplish such growth.

On a more practical level, this parable serves as a reminder that, no matter how seemingly small our evangelization efforts might be, they are meaningful and important beyond measure. The smallest of seeds, guided by the Holy Spirit, can grow to reach the entire earth, and similarly, a kind word, a life of virtue, a charitable heart, can touch many, and thus have an impact that defies all logic.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that our efforts to evangelize and carry out our apostolic mission will never be fruitless, because even if all we can offer is seemingly small, by the grace of God and fueled by the Holy Spirit, it’ll have a much bigger impact that we could possibly have imagined.

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