Happiness is not what makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us
happy.
- David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart
(How will you express gratitude today?) |
HEB 10:32-39; PS 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24,
39-40
MK 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.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
. . . in the Gospel of Mark, 4:26-34, Jesus is finding ways to effectively communicate with diverse audiences. To the people in the streets, he speaks in parables, “With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.” But with his disciples, who had been enlightened, he dispensed with this method and “explained everything in private.” He tailored what he was saying to make his message understandable by those hearing it. The
agrarian parables of the seeds spoken to the agricultural based people would certainly do the trick. And switching to fishing metaphors for coastal people would too.
My reflection on the parable offered here equates sowing the seeds with gradual understanding by the people hearing Christ’s message. Once the
seeds are sown, “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.” Jesus sows the seed with his parable, the people think about what he says and it takes hold. Then it grows and, as they talk more about it and hear more parables, the full grain appears – this is their faith. When that faith is “ripe” the sickle is wielded and they are “harvested” –
brought fully into our shared faith as believers.
by Mike Kelly
Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 34
“All that is speedful for us to learn and to
know, full courteously will our Lord shew us”
OUR Lord God shewed two manner of secret things. One is this great Secret [Counsel] with all the privy points that belong thereto: and these secret things He willeth we should know [as being, but as] hid until the time that He will clearly shew them to us. The other are the secret things that He willeth to make open and known to us; for He would
have us understand that it is His will that we should know them. They are secrets to us not only for that He willeth that they be secrets to us, but they are secrets to us for our blindness and our ignorance; and thereof He hath great ruth, and therefore He will Himself make them more open to us, whereby we may know Him and love Him and cleave to Him. For all that is speedful for us to learn and to know, full courteously will our Lord shew us: and [of] that is this [Shewing], with all the
preaching and teaching of Holy Church.
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