30 October 2018
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Come to Jesus. Bartimaeus, the crippled woman: they heard Jesus calling them, and they came to Him. What they experienced transformed them not merely in their flesh, but in their hearts. Today Jesus invites us to come close, to notice what is nearly imperceptible yet, given time and nurturing, becomes something no one could miss. Let us look at mustard seeds and yeast.
The particular mustard plant to which Jesus refers is likely the arak tree, or mustard tree (Salvadora persica)whose berries are barely noticeable due to their incredibly small size. Yet, when the tree is fully mature, it can grow into a hardy, drought-resistant tree nearly ten feet high and a foot in diameter. Yeast are a microscopic member of the fungi family, and though they do not grow to be anything of great size, they can cause remarkable effects to things such as beer and bread: a lump of ordinary dough, given even the barest amount of yeast and a little time, can swell to great size. A tiny bit of yeast can ferment even great vats of beer and wine, transforming wort and must into something quite different (and delightful). Yet these processes—the miniscule seed germinating and setting root in the soil, and work of yeast—are unseen and, until recent times, inexplicable.
Consider, then, the Church and its beginnings: a dozen close friends and perhaps a hundred other disciples, hiding in fear until the Holy Spirit unleashes them into the world. What did that tiny seed do? It took root in the earth and stretched out shoots to its every corner and now covers the world. That little pinch of yeast in Jerusalem raised the unleavened dough of humanity to eternal heights, and there is still yet room to expand! That is the Kingdom of God: it is like the tiny bit of water that seeps into the unseen cracks of a great stone, splitting it during the winter, or the invisible wind that erodes the mountains. How many there are that do not believe in the Kingdom of God, yet believe in these unseen things! Why do they believe? Because they see the effects of the unseen: they know that something causes the tree to exist, the bread to rise, the wine to ferment, the stone to split, the mountain’s edges to smooth over time. Yet the effects of the Kingdom they do not see.
That is because we mustard seeds, we leaven, fail so often to allow ourselves to be that living sign of the Kingdom, that visible effect of God’s invisible work in the world. If we have, truly, come to Jesus, if we have heard His call and allowed the Word of God to fall upon our hearts, does it produce fruit (Matthew 13:18-23)? “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,” Jesus says (John 15:16), Jesus who is the Vine: how can we be His branches if we will not come to Him? And how can we produce fruit if, once we have come to Him, we do not remain in Him(John 15:4)? “Be doers of the word and not hearers only,” (James 1:22) and when the world sees you blossoming, when it experiences the leaven of Christ through your life, they will begin to see the Kingdom of God.