GOSPEL THOUGHTS
17th Week – Monday
Gospel – Matthew 13: 32-35
The Power/Mystery of the Mustard Seed and
Faith
1) Smallest of all Seeds – Yet it is necessary
In the Parable of the Mustard seed Jesus says, "It
is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs,
and becomes a tree". This is the reality of the mustard seed.
Since the seed is small, no one can say that the seed
is not necessary. Even though it is very small, without the seed no great tree
will appear
Here we need to pay attention to the size of the
mustard seed and the size of the tree. Both seems to be having extremes – “smallest
of all the seeds” and “when it has grown it is the greatest of Shrubs and becomes
a tree”
These particular extremes convey e a powerful message
to our life.
2) Mustard Seed and the Kingdom of God
Like mustard seed the kingdom starts and it grows like
a mustard tree
In order to realize this, seed of the Kingdom of God is
necessary in our life. If there is no seed of the Kingdom of God it will never realize
in our life
In the initial stage no one may observe the small mustard
seed. It may appear to be a simple matter. But when it grows it becomes very
powerful tree. The same logic can be applied to the Kingdom of God. In the
initial stage the existence of the Kingdom of God may not be felt very much. But
as it grows it becomes very powerful.
3) Mustard seed and the Faith
When the disciples were unable to cast the demon out
from a boy Jesus makes a reference to the Mustard Seed
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you will
say to this mountain “Move from here to there and it will move” Matthew 17:20
When the disciples said to Jesus, "Lord increase
our faith" Jesus tells them to “If you had faith the size of a Mustard
seed you could say to this Mulberry tree “Be uprooted and planted in the sea
and it would obey you” Luke 17: 6.
It appears that
Jesus found difficult even to find in them the at least faith like that of mustard
seed.
4) Unless there is something it cannot
increase
If there is nothing there is no question of increase
Even if ones faith is like that of Mustard seed, it has
the capacity to grow and to become like a big tree. Therefore it is necessary
to have at least little faith like that of mustard seed.
Unless there is some faith, the question of increment
does not arise. The presence of something is the basic condition for the
increase of something.
Unless we have little faith, the prayer "Lord increase
our faith" becomes useless. Such a baseless prayer is not answered.
5) Faith, Mustard seed, and the mulberry tree/
Mountain
What is the size of the mustard seed? What is the size
of the mulberry tree? What is the size of the Mountain? All these are connected
with each other
Faith like that of a Mustard seed has a terrible power
If the faith like that of a mustard seed can move the
mulberry tree, which is very huge, we can imagine the power of faith. If such
is the case when the faith grows to the level of tree from the seed, we can
imagine the power of faith. In other words “in
and through faith” nothing is impossible.
This logic is also applicable to the other areas of
life. When we ask Lord to work wonders in our lives, unless we do some little
or base work, nothing will work in our life.
God builds on what good work we begin in our lives.
Don't expect God to do everything. It is our
responsibility to begin somewhere little work and ask God to guide us and to
take control of it. Then everything will increase and everything will grow.
God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones.
Fr Maxim D’Souza
Jeppu Seminary
Mangalore
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