41 — THE MUSTARD SEED

24th Sunday after Pentecost — 6th after Epiphany

Presence of God. — O Lord, may Your kingdom come upon all the earth; may Your kingdom come into my heart.

Meditation

1 — From the texts of today’s Mass emerges the parable of the mustard seed, so brief, but so rich in meaning: “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of all plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches” (Gosp.: Mt. 13, 31-35). Nothing more small and humble than the “kingdom of heaven,” that is, the Church at its origins: Jesus, who is its Head and founder, is born in a cave of animals, lives for thirty years in the little shop of a carpenter and for only three years carries out His work among poor people preaching a doctrine so simple that all, even the illiterate, can understand it. When Jesus leaves the earth, the Church is constituted by a small group of twelve men, gathered around a humble woman, Mary; but this first nucleus has a vital force so great, so powerful that in a few years it spreads throughout all the lands of the vast Roman empire. Gradually through the centuries, the Church, from a tiny mustard seed sown in the heart of a Virgin-Mother and of poor fishermen, becomes a gigantic tree that extends its branches to every region of the globe and in whose shadow take refuge peoples of every language and of every nation.

The Church is not a society of men alone, but of men who have for head Jesus, the Son of God; the Church is the total Christ, that is, Jesus plus His faithful incorporated into Him and forming with Him a single body; the Church is the Mystical Body of Christ of which every baptized person is a member. To love the Church is to love Jesus; to work for the diffusion of the Church is to work for the increase of the Mystical Body of Christ, that the number of its members may be complete and every member may cooperate in its splendor. The brief invocation: “adveniat regnum tuum,” indicates all this and solicits all this from the heavenly Father.

Is it little what we can do for the diffusion of the Church? Let us do it at least with all our heart, let us cooperate also with our poor work, true mustard seed, in the development of this marvelous tree, in whose shadow all men must find salvation and rest.

2 — The parable of the mustard seed makes us think not only of the development of the kingdom of God in the world, but also of the development of this kingdom in our heart. Did Jesus not perhaps say: “The kingdom of God is within you”? (Lk. 17, 21). Well, even in us this marvelous kingdom had its beginnings from a very small seed, the seed of grace: sanctifying grace that, in a hidden and mysterious way, God sowed in us in holy baptism; actual grace of good inspirations, of the divine word — “semen est verbum Dei” (Lk. 8, 11) — that Jesus, heavenly Sower, has scattered with full hands in our souls. Little by little this small seed has sprouted, has put roots ever deeper, has grown penetrating progressively our whole spirit, until it has conquered us entirely for God, until we have felt the need to say: Lord, all that I have and that I am be Yours; I give myself entirely to You. I wish to be Your kingdom.

To be totally kingdom of God in such a way that He be the sole Sovereign and Dominator of our heart and nothing exist in us that does not belong to Him or is not subject to His empire, is the ideal of the soul that loves God with total love. But, how to arrive at the full development of this kingdom of God in us? The second parable that we read today tells us: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and mixed in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened.” Behold another most beautiful image of the work that grace must accomplish in our soul: grace has been placed in us as leaven that little by little must grow until it permeates our whole personality and divinizes it entirely. Grace, divine leaven, has been given us that it may heal, elevate, sanctify our being with all its powers and faculties; only when it will have led to term this work shall we be entirely kingdom of God.

Let us reflect once more on the great problem of our correspondence to grace. This divine seed, this supernatural leaven is in us; who will be able to prevent it from becoming a gigantic tree capable of giving refuge to other souls, who will be able to prevent it from fermenting the whole mass, if we remove all the obstacles that oppose its development, if we second its impulses and its exigencies?

“Adveniat regnum tuum!” Yes, let us invoke the total advent of the kingdom of God also in our hearts.

Colloquy

“Lord God my, who created me to Your image and likeness, grant me this grace which You showed me to be so great and necessary, that I may overcome the very bad nature, which draws to faults and to perdition. Since I feel in my flesh the tendency to sin, which contradicts the laws of the Spirit and leads me as a slave to obey in many things the senses; nor can I resist the passions if Your most holy grace does not assist me, O Lord, infusing itself with its ardors into my heart.

“O Lord, without grace, I can do nothing, while if it helps and comforts me, I can do all things.

“O grace truly celestial, without which we have no merits, without which all the gifts of nature are to be esteemed nothing! O most holy grace, which makes the poor in spirit rich in virtue, which makes him humble of heart who is provided with many goods, come, descend into me, fill me today with celestial consolation, that my soul may not fall through weariness and aridity of spirit.

“I pray You, Lord, that I may find grace before You: if even I shall not obtain what nature desires, ‘Your grace will be enough for me.’ Having it, I shall fear no evil, when I shall be tempted and anguished by many tribulations. It is my strength, it gives me help and counsel, is more powerful than any enemy, more wise than any sage.

“‘Your grace, my God, prevent me and accompany me always, make me always intent on good works, through Jesus Christ Your Son.’ So be it” (Imit. III, 55).