Once again this week Jesus speaks to us in parables -- multifaceted gems that once tumbled around in our hearts, ruminated upon and yielded unbelievable insights into the Reign of God. While the disciples certainly preferred straightforward answers, Jesus obviously preferred parables.

Of the comparisons of the reign of God to a field, a mustard seed and the leaven in bread, I have always liked the comparison of the mustard seed and the Reign of God. This tiny, tiny little seed grows into a great bush, so large that the birds of the air make their nests in it.

If you take the parable at its face value it all seems quite lovely. However, there is a dark side farmers know well: the mustard bush is an invasive plant. It grows wildly and rapidly, quickly overtaking a garden, ruining the plants that had been planted with care and reducing their yield, if not completely choking them out.

Mustard bushes can be uncontrollable and rapidly spread across a farm if not quickly uprooted before going to seed. Surely this reality was not lost on Jesus; nor on those who heard him tell the parable. It seems that perhaps Jesus is presenting an image of the expansion of the Reign of God as something uncontrollable, invasive and fast growing!

Looking through the lens of this image…the Reign of God is not something that can be domesticated or controlled. By its very nature, it grows uncontrollably and burst forth offering refuge. I believe that many of us though would prefer something that we could contain and control… and domesticate!

But the truth is that the Reign of God is just that…“God’s Reign,”…not ours. We are part of it by our baptism and we are called to help water it so that it continues to grow and “invade” every crevice and furrow of this planet, but we don’t get to tame it.

Two thousand years ago Jesus’ vision of the bursting forth of the Reign of God was nothing less than radical. And, it still is today. We are called to be part of that radical vision -- to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned…to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.”

Part of the Reign of God is the proclamation of the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God that Jesus preached that got him crucified? As his disciple, just how radical of a life am I willing live?

In a world that proclaims a “gospel of personal prosperity” -- tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor -- to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached? What concrete action can I take today to “water” the Reign of God? Where and how do I see the Reign of God bursting forth in imaginative and radical ways?

Blessings,
Fr Tim

Today’s Gospel invites us to “rest in Jesus” -- to turn our burdens over to Jesus and allow the power of the Spirit, dwelling within us, to empower us to push on… ever forward…knowing that we do so not alone but with the presence of the very one who created us and loved us into being.

Jesus does not dismiss the burdens of life. On the contrary, Jesus recognizes just how heavy they are and, in the midst of the struggles of our lives, he assures us to be with us and help us.

We are not asked to set our burdens down at the door of the church as we enter. But rather, we are invited to bring them to the altar and place them side by side with the bread and wine which we offer to be blessed and broken, transformed and shared.

This Jesus, the Christ, knows first hand of our human burdens and understands our suffering. We need not fear that our God does not understand, or does not care. The message of all of Jesus’ preaching and teaching was the exact opposite: our God knows us and loves us deeply and passionately and walks with us in the midst of our sufferings; our God weeps with us when we weep and suffers with us when we suffer. And as the Body of Christ, we are invited to reach out to others whose burdens and pain overwhelm them… to be the compassion of Christ to them…to help carry their burdens and to walk with them in the midst of their suffering. As Pope Francis said, to “be a sign of mercy”.

Welcoming the stranger, the immigrant, the one who is “other”, is an authentic living out of our discipleship…it incarnates the Gospel in the midst of our community.

Ironically in our reaching out to others, often our burdens are lightened, our wounds begin to heal and we become more and more the living Body of Christ. We become the face of the mercy of God.

Do I have burdens or old wounds that I am holding on to and not giving over to Jesus, that getting rid of might allow me to be more available to my sisters and brothers in need? Whose burden or pain am I being called to help carry, and how might I do that? How might I become the face of mercy to those who are suffering?

Blessings,
Fr Tim