THAT WORD OF GOD WHICH RESCUES MAN FROM THE WORLDLY ANXIETY OF STERILE CHATTER AND THE SPASMODIC SEARCH FOR SUCCESS

God's plan is always fulfilled, far beyond our predictions and our impatience, as he had already stated through the prophet: «The Word that comes from my mouth will not return to me without effect, without having done what I desire and without having accomplished what I sent her for"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.

PDF print format article

 

.

In the Holy Gospel of this 11th Sunday of ordinary time (year B) Jesus pronounces a long speech in parables which he addresses both to the disciples and to the crowds attracted by his preaching on the coming Kingdom:

"During that time, Jesus said [to the crowd]: “This is how the kingdom of God is: like a man who throws seed on the ground; dorma o vegli, at night or during the day, the seed germinates and grows. Come, he himself does not know it. The soil spontaneously produces the stem first, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear; and when the fruit is ripe, immediately he sends the scythe, because the harvest has come". He said: “To what can we compare the kingdom of God or with what parable can we describe it? It's like a mustard seed that, when sown on the ground, it is the smallest of all the seeds that are on the ground; ma, when it is sown, it grows and becomes larger than all the plants in the garden and makes branches so large that the birds of the sky can make nests in its shade.". With many parables of the same kind he announced the Word to them, as they could understand. Without parables he did not speak to them but, in private, he explained everything to his disciples" (MC 4,26-34).

Apparently enigmatic, the metaphorical language of the parables used by Jesus is his privileged way of addressing everyone, to sow that seed of the Word (MC 4, 14) which may become a "mystery" for some, those who follow him most closely, who benefit from his explanations. But others, who also "could have understood", they are destined to stay out of it (cf.. «exo», in MC 3,31-32; 4,11), even the closest relatives of Jesus: «The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you; for those who are outside, however, everything happens in parables".

Jesus speaks in parables so that listeners change their way of thinking and become capable of welcoming the new that He is announcing, in terms of changing the way of life, to feel, judge and act. He does this by taking examples within everyone's reach or unsuspected comparisons, demonstrating an uncommon ability to observe reality and a knowledge of the audience who are only at times amazed at the disbelief or inability to grasp the hidden aspect of his preaching. In this Sunday's evangelical pericope, after pronouncing the parable of the sower, later explained only to the disciples as sowing the Word of God (MC 4,1-20), and the two short sayings, one on the lamp "that comes" to be seen and the other on the measure of listening (MC 4,21-25), Jesus narrates two final parables that want to attest to the effectiveness of the Word sown. The first, present only in Mark, states that:

«This is how the kingdom of God is: like a man who throws seed on the ground; dorma o vegli, at night or during the day, the seed germinates and grows. Come, he himself doesn't know it.".

Jesus speaks again about the seed, an element that intrigued him and on which he had meditated a lot. Seed is always something left over from the previous harvest: it is the fruit of a plant that, harvest, dry and looks dead. But if it is planted, then it rots in the earth, it unravels and disappears; in reality, But, generates life, which becomes a sprout, then a plant, and in the end it will appear in its abundant fruits, even as a multiplication and transformation of the original single seed. For this reason the story of the seed, in the words of Jesus, it is suitable for expressing the mystery of the Kingdom.

The coming of the kingdom of God, its appearance, it is in fact compared by Jesus to the agricultural process that every farmer knows well and experiences with attention and care: Seminar, birth of wheat, growth, ear formation and maturation. Faced with this development, we need to be amazed, admiring the virtuality hidden in that small dried seed, who even appears dead. This is how the kingdom of God is: small reality, with a mysterious power within it, silent, irresistible and effective, which expands without us doing anything. Once the seed has been sown, the farmer has no special control over it, whether he is sleeping or awake to go and check what is happening, growth no longer depends on him. On the contrary, if the farmer wanted to measure the growth and go to check what happens to the seed under the ground, it would strongly threaten the birth and life of the sprout.

Here then is the lesson: we need to be amazed at the Kingdom that expands more and more, even when we don't realize it and consequently we need to have faith in it and its strength. And the seed is the Word that, sown by the announcer, it will bear fruit even if he doesn't realize it, nor can he verify the process: he must be certain of this. No anxiety, but only concern and waiting; no anguish of being sterile in preaching: if the seed is good, if the word preached is the Word of God it will bear fruit in an unexpected way.

Below Jesus proposes another parable, still on a seed, but this time with mustard:

“It's like a mustard seed that, when sown on the ground, it is the smallest of all the seeds that are on the ground".

The Kingdom is a very small reality, just as the presence of God among men was very small in that man who was Jesus, from that tiny village of Nazareth He travels the streets of a portion of the earth, with a limited group of disciples. Yet this small seed given to our humanity becomes a very large tree. All this in a mysterious way that simply asks to welcome the seed, to keep it in a heart that awaits. It is no coincidence that Jesus speaks in this parable only about sowing, while he is silent about all the work that comes after to make the seed grow. Leave all this out not because it isn't important, but he wants to offer us the precise lesson that the Kingdom grows anyway and it is not men who give strength to his Word, nor can they stop the life it carries within it. Again he calls the disciples to leave all anxieties and abandon themselves to this gift:

«…It is sown, it grows and becomes larger than all the plants in the garden and makes branches so large that the birds of the sky can make their nests in its shadow ".

Thus the effective idea of ​​Jesus who compares the Kingdom to the seed, which already had its biblical roots in that tree glimpsed by Daniel, symbol of the universal kingdom of God (cf.. Dn 4,6-9.17-19), remains in the imagination of future missionaries of the very first Christian generation. Paul reminds us that the Word of God may seem like a small thing, clothed as it is with human speech, fragile and weak, put into the mouths of simple men and women, not intellectuals, not wise according to the world (cf.. 1Color 1,26). Yet it is: «Power of God» (RM 1,16). But of a non-worldly effectiveness, not measurable in quantitative terms, because the Word of the Lord is: «Word of the cross» (1Color 1,18).

The Apostle Peter underlines in his writing that that same Word becomes a seed of immortal life and source of love:

«Love each other intensely, from the heart, each other, regenerated not from a corruptible but an incorruptible seed, through the living and everlasting word of God." (1PT 1,23).

The revelation of the effectiveness of the Word of God is decisive for Christians, because it takes them away from the worldly anxieties of results and success. God's plan is always fulfilled, far beyond our predictions and our impatience, as he had already stated through the prophet:

«The Word that comes from my mouth will not return to me without effect, without having done what I desire and without having accomplished what I sent her for" (Is 55,11).

 

From the Hermitage, 15 June 2024

 

.

 

.

Visit the pages of our book shop WHO and support our editions by purchasing and distributing our books.

.

______________________

Dear Readers,
this magazine requires management costs that we have always faced only with your free offers. Those who wish to support our apostolic work can send us their contribution through the convenient and safe way PayPal by clicking below:

Or if you prefer you can use our
Bank account in the name of:
Editions The island of Patmos

n Agency. 59 From Rome
Iban code:
IT74R0503403259000000301118
For international bank transfers:
Codice SWIFT:
BAPPIT21D21

If you make a bank transfer, send an email to the editorial staff, the bank does not provide your email and we will not be able to send you a thank you message:
isoladipatmos@gmail.com

We thank you for the support you wish to offer to our apostolic service.

The Fathers of the Island of Patmos

.

.

.

.

.