Third Friday in Ordinary Time
Friday, January 31, 2025
Third Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint John Bosco, Priest
Heb 10:32-39/Mk 4:26-34 (Lectionary #321)
We can’t say Jesus did not practice what he preached. After hearing him urge others to share what was in their hearts, we see him doing it himself.
When Mark reports the next two parables about the “Kingdom,” he explains that in preaching to the crowd Jesus “spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them except in parables. But he explained everything in private to his disciples.” There may have been a reason for this that Mark doesn’t mention.
How could Jesus have preached the Good News as he understood it — fantastic news, a mystery beyond all human comprehension, a life-transforming invitation to the fullness of life, but which “gave all” only to those who were willing to “lose all” — without feeling discouragement? Even preachers today, who don’t have a fraction of the understanding Jesus had, and who are able to proclaim only the mitigated measure of mystery they have absorbed, feel discouraged by the obtuseness and apathy they encounter. Let’s face it: the authentic message of Jesus is not the hottest-selling item on the market. And the “Kingdom of God” does not appear to be approaching at warp speed.
Jesus felt this. And undoubtedly prayed about it. And shared what the Father revealed to him. He told the crowds only what they could understand, but to his disciples he unburdened his heart. What did the Father show him?
“The kingdom of God,” Jesus said (and saw) “is like a man scattering seed…. He goes to bed and gets up day after day…. The seed sprouts and grows without his knowing how it happens.” Little by little the soil produces: “first the stalk, then the head of wheat, finally the full grain in the head.” When the crop is ready, he gathers it in, “for the time is ripe for harvest.”
He said the Kingdom is also “like a mustard seed, which, when sown… is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet once it is sown it grows up to become the largest of all shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds of the sky to build nests in its shade.” That is the future Jesus saw for his Church.
Jesus lived in hope. He didn’t see results. But he trusted in the Father. And he shared his feelings and his thoughts with us so that we could do the same.
The Good News is that, seen or unseen, the seed is alive. We just have to keep waiting and working “in joyful hope for the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
Initiative: Be joyful, reminding yourself that the Kingdom is being established.
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