REFLECTIONS TODAY
Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed teaches us a point in our endeavor to be saints: we always start small. To think of being a saint is indeed a lofty thought, but we can always start small. “Me? A saint?” is a self-defeatist attitude that we need to check. While we are aware that we are unworthy, we should not preempt the grace that the Lord offers us. After all, God’s invitation for holiness is universal. He calls each of us to follow the footsteps of many saints who have gone before us. Saints started small, but were nourished and had grown big and tall by God’s grace. The same objection that hinders God’s plan for some applies to religious or priestly vocation. “Huh, me? A priest?” “Who, me? A nun?” We are mustard seeds whose smallness makes holiness seem a daunting task. If only we realize how much potential God has put into that mustard seed! We will then see that in our littleness, the power of God is made more manifest.
Gospel • 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.
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