Daily Catholic Lectio
Tuesday, 31 October 2023
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week of the Year
Romans 8:18-25. Luke 13:18-21
Hoping for the unseen!
“When we are hope-filled and patient, even the small ones will grow and create big impacts.”
The parables of Jesus concerning the kingdom of God surprise us. They are intelligible even to the common people. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a grain of mustard seed and leaven.
What is the kingdom of God? Often, we equate kingdom of God with the Church, values, or life after death. But the kingdom of God simply means Jesus. That’s why Jesus tells his audience, ‘the kingdom of God is amidst you’ (cf. Lk 17:21). The world is the working space of the kingdom of God.
(a) Mustard seed
The Jews considered the mustard seed to be the smallest of all seeds (cf. Mt 13:31-33, Mk 4:30-32). When Jesus talks about ‘faith in the size of a mustard seed’ (cf. Lk 17:6), he refers to its insignificant size. Mustard seed is a seed that is obtained from the plant ‘sinapis nigra.’ This plant grows from four feet to fifteen feet. That’s why this is called a tree. Though Jesus talks about the growth of the tree, what he insists on is its insignificant origin and its enormous growth. Humble beginning, but a great ending.
Jesus yet uses another expression: “The birds of the air made nests in its branches.” In Jesus’ parable of the sower, ‘birds of the air’ are the enemies of the seed (cf. Lk 8:5, 12). But they are the plant’s friends and guests. The tree of the kingdom of God is not a ‘cell phone tower’ that casts the birds away, but a mustard tree that accommodates and feeds the birds. In the Patristic interpretation, ‘birds’ refer to the Gentiles who are converted to join the kingdom of God (cf. Dan 4:12, 21, Ps 104:13, Eze 17:23).
(b) Leaven
Leaven is the yeast that we mix with the dough for baking a cake; leaven is added to the dough to ferment it and make it soft and morbid. Yeast continues to work on the dough. Small beginning, but a big impact. Yeast does its work even when no one notices it. The work of the leaven is unstoppable, inseparable, and irreversible.
Yeast or leaven is used in the Bible in a negative way as well (cf. Lk 12:1, 1 Cor 5:6-8, Gal 5:9). But, here it is in a positive light.
What do these parables tell us about the kingdom of God?
Though a grain of mustard seed and leaven are small in size and insignificant in quantity, they have in them the potential to create great impacts. Their work is unseen. Thus is the kingdom of God. The work of the mustard seed and leaven can’t be stopped by external agencies; in the same way, the work of the kingdom can never be stopped from outside. Mustard seed and leaven create utility values. The kingdom of God creates life values in the world.
In the first reading, Paul, who says that entire creation participates in the salvific plan of God, uses two words: ‘eagerness,’ and ‘groaning in the pains of childbirth.’ Jesus uses similar expressions in his farewell discourse in John: “When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world” (Jn 16:21).
The little effort that we do not wish to give up is like birth pangs. ‘A little more,’ and ‘a little more,’ we are able to make it. A heart that is eager and patient tolerates any pain.
Leonardo da Vinci, who sees a plant with flowers, asks himself, “If a seed can use its full potential and push it to become stems, leaves, and flowers, why don’t human persons know their full potential? Even if they know, why don’t they use it? And even if they use it, why are they not able to achieve fullness?
In God’s creation, every creature realises its full potential through pain. Mustard seed, leaven, and we – all are opening ourselves up. “With patience, we hope for the unseen.”
“When we are hope-filled and patient, even the small ones will grow and create big impacts.”
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The Catechism of the Catholic Church, writing about the kingdom of God, states: “The kingdom of God is Christ.” And it is for him that we wait in patience” (cf. n. 2816).
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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