HOMILY/SERMON OF 11TH WEEK SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME. YEAR B

HOMILY/SERMON OF 11TH WEEK SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: YOU ARE GOD’S PRECIOUS SEED

BY: Fr Ade

Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34

Let’s begin this Sunday with a riddle. “What is stronger than God, more evil than the devil, poor people have it, rich people do not need it and if you eat it you will die? the answer is: “Nothing.” Literally the word parable means “a riddle”. They are stories that leave the listener with the responsibility of figuring out their meaning.

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Jesus told more than 40 parables during his ministry. In these parables of Jesus he gives riddles that leave the listeners figuring out just what they mean. The German theologian, Helmut Thielke says that we cannot fully comprehend the parables of Jesus until we see ourselves in the story. Like a small child recognising himself in the mirror for the first time, when we see ourselves represented in the story, then we finally get a good grasp of it. Then we realise we are the wasteful younger son who went away and squandered the father’s property or his elder brother who grumbled at the father’s magnanimity when his brother returned. We might see ourselves as the Levite who went his way without helping the man attacked on the road to Jericho. Once we see ourselves in the story, the story takes on a whole new meaning and then we understand what Jesus is saying.

One of the parables of Jesus in the gospel today compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed that grows into the largest shrub so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade, in the ancient world the size of the mustard seed was a byword for the smallest and most insignificant thing anyone could imagine. In Jesus’ parable the contrast is made between the smallness of the seed, the exuberance of its growth and its eventual worth. Unremarkable beginnings can lead to mighty achievements. Littleness is no index of importance. The small mustard seed grows to become a shelter for all the birds of the air. The parable teaches us never to despise the days of little beginnings.

Mark’s seed parables bring to mind the story of another wonder seed commonly known as the Chinese bamboo tree. When the seed is sown in the ground and watered, nothing happens till the end of the first year. The farmers continue watering it and nurturing it but nothing happens till the end of the second year. It fails to sprout even after the end of the third year but the person growing it must continue to irrigate, fertilize and care for it. You will be surprised to know that nothing happens till the end of the fourth year as well. Then suddenly in the fifth year, something miraculous and incredible happens. Within six weeks it grows up to 90 feet! That is God in nature dishing out his astonishing wonders.

St. Paul admonishes us in the second reading “walk by faith and not by sight”. A bright hope in the fruitful end of our undertakings should be a source of strength for us at the beginnings of such undertakings. When we think of the small beginnings of Jesus’ own ministry in Galilee to the spread of his message throughout the world, we can appreciate the vast growth that has taken place in history. The seed which Jesus planted has indeed grown into a large kingdom: From the small beginnings of Jesus’ humble birth in a manger, his preaching, his attention to the afflicted, his quiet transformations, his unusual company of followers — from all these arose the great kingdom of God that we see today and still in the process of evolving and developing.

You too are God’s precious seed. You are planted to blossom. Do not give up on yourself, keep walking with the Lord by faith. You are His precious seed, not buried in some obscure dark place but duly planted by the caring and loving hands of the Almighty. Surely, you will sprout in glory and blossom in due season. The humble beginnings of many great personalities of our time should lend us more courage as we envisage a bright future. From John D. Rockefeller to Dangote, Oprah Winferey, Cosmas Maduka and a host of others, all had their gloomy, uninteresting, humble beginnings but as a seed meant for greatness they all rose to heights of valour and greteness. God says to you today- You too will RiSe!

“The heights by great men reached & kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Toiled ever upward through the night.”
– Sir Henry Wadsworth

HAPPY SUNDAY!

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