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Gospel: Mark 4:26-34
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 through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
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.”
He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
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.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In April 2020, a ninety-nine-year-old British World War Two veteran, Captain Tom Moore, wanted to raise money to support people who became ill with COVID-19.
He promised to walk one-hundred laps around his garden with his walker before his 100th birthday, only a few weeks away.
His goal was $1,250.
Then his story went viral.
In all, Captain Tom captivated the hearts of 1.5 million people, raising over $40 million!
What started as a humble effort to help a neighbor exploded into a global obsession.
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Captain Tom’s story reminds us that God works in mysterious ways, using simple ideas and ordinary people to change the world.
A mustard seed, as Jesus says in the Gospel, is the smallest of seeds. But when sown into the ground, it becomes the largest of plants.
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Consider another “mustard seed” story: Mother Teresa.
In 1950, she started a small religious order in India, whose mission was, in her words, “to care for the hungry, the naked, the homeless, the crippled, the blind, the lepers, all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared for throughout society.”
Who would be interested in following her?
By the end of last year, the Missionaries of Charity had grown to 5,167 members serving in 139 countries with 760 homes for the homeless, the sick, and the dying.
Volunteers from our own parish prepare food every Monday morning and hand deliver it to the Missionaries of Charity’s soup kitchen in Newark.
The world’s attention – our attention – turned to the poorest of the poor.
And it all started with a single mustard seed.
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The same is true for the Church.
Jesus began with the Twelve Apostles. Now 1.2 billion people – nearly 1 in 6 – identify as Catholic. That’s a growth of one-million percent!
And it started with just a handful of mustard seeds.
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A 99-year-old man fundraises $40 million.
A nun from nowhere propels poverty onto the world stage.
A Church with one billion followers starts with twelve.
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The power of a mustard seed.
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Allow me to conclude with a story whose future is yet to be written:
A small suburban parish, stuck in the middle of a pandemic, starts dying on the vine, languishing six months without a pastor. Suddenly, a young priest is appointed shepherd of that parish.
One by one, parishioners return. One by one, parishioners get involved. One by one, hearts are changed as people sense real change is coming.
We, too, are like a mustard seed, “the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.”
But we will become, “the largest of plants,” as Jesus says, a home for every heart and soul in northern Bergen County and beyond.
While we’ve only just begun, imagine what the Lord can do through us.
It begins with one seed, one step, one “yes” at a time.
Suddenly, an entire community is transformed.
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A 99-year-old man fundraises $40 million.
A nun from nowhere propels poverty onto the world stage.
A Church with one billion followers starts with twelve.
Now imagine what we can do.
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Image Credits: (1) The Word Church, YouTube (2) Full Gospel Holy Temple (3) Wales 247 (4) The Independent (5) First15 (6) St. Pius X, Old Tappan, photo taken by Rev. Kevin Kilgore