Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

June 17, 2018 

Readings:

First Reading: Ezekiel 17: 22-24

Psalm: 92

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10

Gospel reading according to Mark (4: 26-34)

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Homily:

Jesus said about the reality of the Kingdom of God, and nobody knows how it is; where it comes from and how it grows.  We sleep and rise without knowing there is something happening in our midst.  Only God knows.   “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 the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how’.” (Mk. 4: 26-27).  Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a seed scattered by a man, a sower.   The “man” just threw the seed in the land freely, without specific place, without any direction.  He just let it go.  This seed is the Kingdom of God and His word, the gospel.  What only we know is that God, through a “man” and/or a sower of seed, first proclaimed by the prophets of old and then in the fullness of time by His only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ through his apostles, scattered the seed of the Word of God to each ones’ heart, the land, soil.   This seed is the Kingdom of God.  In itself, it is complete.  It has the capacity to sprout, and grow . . .

. . . and produce another seed of the same kind. “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” (Mk. 4: 28-29).  In like manner, in the fullness of time, when it comes, the harvesters gather and reap the grains.  The same with us, when our time comes, we will receive the Reign-Kingdom of God as our reward, for spreading also the seed, the good news.

Jesus was using parables to explain plainly the difficult and mysterious things we do not comprehend, like for example, about heaven and earth and under the earth, so that his listeners can understand what is hidden in their eyes and cannot grasp by their minds.  To explain what is the Kingdom of God, “He said, ‘To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?” (Mk. 4: 30).  For the Kingdom of God is already here but not yet.  It already exists in our midst but we do not distinguish or understand it by our mere judgments.  It needs a lot of faith to recognize it.   “It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.  But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade” (Mk. 4: 31-32).  The Kingdom of God started in a very small insignificant seed of faith.  Like in the case of the church from its beginning (primordial church), and also it is like our basic ecclesial community or the present GKK composed of some few family members.  When time came, when it became stronger and grew, from “blade, then the ears, and then the full grain,” the primitive church, grew not only in its numbers spread throughout the world but also in quality; this small Christian communities coming together become a universal Church.

To the crowds, especially to the Jews, Jesus spoke to them in parables.  “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” (Mk. 4: 33-34).  But with his disciples and apostles, he spoke and explained every detail of the parables.  The community of Jesus started in a few numbers, to twelve, but sooner or later it turned to five thousand followers, and after his death and resurrection, and through his twelve apostles, it turned to million followers all over the world; from a small group, like a mustard seed, to a universal Church, to “the largest plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”  That is how the Kingdom of God works in our midst, slowly but surely!