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Gospel: Matthew 13: 31-35
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”
He spoke to them another parable.
“The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened.”
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Telemachus was one of the early Christian hermits, who spent his life alone in the desert. One day while praying, however, he felt God calling him to Rome.
There he made his way to the Colosseum, where he witnessed gladiators notoriously fighting to their death while bloodthirsty crowds cheered them on.
He was horrified.
Telemachus literally jumped into the arena and tried physically separating the gladiators. People started throwing stones at him, but he kept pushing these men apart until he was finally stoned to death.
When the emperor got word of Telemachus’ story, he was so moved that he ended the gladiator games.
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Telemachus became like the mustard seed in today’s Gospel. He was the smallest of seeds, the most unimportant of people, but he changed an entire culture.
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That’s the story of Jesus, too. One death changed the course of human history.
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It’s also the story of the Church.
What began with the Twelve Apostles has exploded into a community of more than 1 billion Catholics. That’s a growth of more than 1 million percent!
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What does this say to us?
Just one life dedicated to Christ can change an entire parish; a family; a culture; even the course of human history.
May we see ourselves like mustard seeds – a force to be reckoned with.
Telemachus, pray for us.
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Image credits: (1) Foundation for Economic Education (2) Gladiator, Britannica (3) Parable of the Mustard Seed, First15