Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.“
Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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There’s a story of an early Christian hermit, whose name was Telemachus. He dedicated his life to prayer, living in the desert. One day, he felt the Lord calling him to Rome.
So, Telemachus left his desert cell and made his way to the Colosseum, where he witnessed gladiators fighting to their death, while bloodthirsty crowds cheered them on.
He was horrified.
Telemachus literally threw himself into the arena and tried physically separating one gladiator from another. Enraged, the crowds started throwing stones at him until he was beaten to death.
When the emperor got word of the story, he was so moved that he eventually 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 – and saved innocent lives.
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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 around the world – a growth of more than 1 million percent!
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What does this say to us?
If one person can change an entire culture, if twelve can change the world, then imagine what the Lord might do through us.
See yourself like a mustard seed – small on its own, but with God, a force to be reckoned with.
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Image credits: (1) Catholic Medical Mission Board (2) Media Storehouse (3) Desert Streams Ministries
Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, “Woman, you are set free of your infirmity.” He laid his hands on her, and she at once stood up straight and glorified God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant that Jesus had cured on the sabbath, said to the crowd in reply, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the sabbath day.” The Lord said to him in reply, “Hypocrites! Does not each one of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his ass from the manger and lead it out for watering? This daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound for eighteen years now, ought she not to have been set free on the sabbath day from this bondage?” When he said this, all his adversaries were humiliated; and the whole crowd rejoiced at all the splendid deeds done by him.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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Why must Jesus break the Law?
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It was forbidden to do any work on the Sabbath. Even healing a woman bound by Satan for 18 years was considered “work.”
If she’d been hunched over for that long, then why couldn’t Jesus just wait a day and keep the peace?
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His heart burned with compassion. There was an urgency in him; when the Lord saw how much this woman suffered, he simply had to act.
But Jesus also wanted to stand in contrast to the religious authorities, whose hearts were chilled by legalism. They cared more about following man-made rules than caring for a neighbor in need. So, Jesus teaches them a foundational lesson in faith.
Faith without works is dead.
We cannot please God while ignoring those who suffer.
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I’m sure we all know someone who’s hunched over like this woman.
Their backs are nearly breaking because of loneliness; stress; isolation; fear; or some other burden.
Do our hearts burn with compassion for them like the Lord’s does?
Even a simple phone call; a kind word of encouragement; or a generous tip at dinner can lighten another person’s burden.
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Today’s Gospel reminds us: love for God frequently expresses itself through love of neighbor.
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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How do we please God?
If you asked a first-century Jew, then they would tell you simply, “Follow the Law.”
That, of course, could mean many things.
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In Jesus’ day, there were two major schools of thought regarding the Law.
Some Jews wanted to expand it as much as possible. They were meticulous and exceptionally detailed, so much so they created 613 rules to follow, involving everything from honoring one’s parents to the treatment of birds.
Others treated the Law like an accordion, wanting to condense it down to its very essence. Such is the case in today’s Gospel.
A Pharisee asks Jesus, “Which commandment in the Law is the greatest?”
Jesus responds with not one – but two – commandments; they must go together. You cannot please God if you follow one, but not the other.
Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, and soul, and your neighbor as yourself.
This is THE new insight of Christianity. We cannot mistreat other people while believing that we’re living in a rightful relationship with God.
As John writes in his Gospel, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ but hates his neighbor, he is a liar. One who does not love the neighbor whom he has seen, cannot love the God whom he has not seen.”
Pleasing God boils down to a single action: love.
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But what exactly is love?
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Love’s a bit like humility. It’s hard to define. But you know it when you see it in action. You know it when feel it. And you know it when you don’t.
Throughout the centuries, poets like Dante have tried defining “love” with varying degrees of success. For example, in The Divine Comedy, Dante writes, “Love is what moves the sun and the other stars.”
Nice, but a bit too abstract to me.
Shakespeare, on the other hand, got it right.
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In one of the most famous scenes from Romeo and Juliet, a young Juliet gazes down upon Romeo from her balcony and says to him:
“Romeo, the more I give to you, the more I seem to have.”
The happier Romeo was, the happier Juliet became. That’s the very essence of love: the more we give, the more we have.
Love opens our eyes to a world of “we,” not just “me.”
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Parents know this well. Think of how delighted you are when you see your children succeed. You’ll sacrifice almost anything to make their futures brighter.
The more you love them, the happier you become.
Or the delight teachers experience when they teach their students how to read. Watching a child speak the story as they turn the pages of a book will warm any heart.
Or the sense of meaning we find when volunteering to help the most vulnerable among us. Knowing we made a difference in someone else’s day brightens our own.
If Juliet is right, then the more we give to anyone, the happier we become.
This must be true, above all, when we love God with all of our heart, mind, and soul. The more we give ourselves to Him, the happier we become.
This is why love fulfills the Law; it’s the force that moves the sun and the other stars. It motivates us to live in a world of “we,” not just “me.”
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things. Love never fails.
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Who do I love? How do I live in a world of “we,” not “me”?
Is there anyone I can love a little more?
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Love your God. Love your neighbor.
This not only fulfills the Law; it also satisfies the human heart.
Because the more you give to anyone, the happier you become.
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Image credits: (1) The Tack Online (2) World History Encyclopedia (3) Think and Let Think
