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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 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 in need exploded into a global obsession.
Captain Tom’s story reminds us that God works in mysterious ways, often using simple ideas and ordinary people – mustard seeds – to change the world.
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Jesus did the same. He set the world on fire with the call of Saint Peter, then the other eleven Apostles. Two-thousand years later, the Church has grown by more than 1 million percent!
The power of a mustard seed.
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Or consider what’s happened in our own parish.
A year ago, our soup kitchen was closed. Then a mustard seed was planted. Three people joined. Then four. Then five. Today we have over twenty volunteers who feed the hungry among us!
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A ninety-nine-year-old man raises $40 million.
The Church grows by one-million percent.
Our own parish experiences renewal.
It all begins with a mustard seed.
Imagine what the Lord can do through you.
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Image credits: (1) Desert Streams Ministries (2) Captain Tom Moore, Wikipedia (3) Herbal Academy