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| Seeds and growth |
The Prophet Ezekiel teaches that only Israel’s God can restore a people’s destiny.
Yechezkel reverses the negative prophecies and includes a vision of hope. Referring to Mashiach, he describes a small cedar shoot which will be restored to the high mountain of Yerushalayim. This tree will grow, bear fruit, and provide protection for all those who seek it. Yechezkel is teaching that in the time of redemption, not only will Israel seek out Hashem, but all the nations of the world will travel to Yerushalayim to seek Israel’s friendship and to acknowledge God’s sovereignty.In the Second Letter to the Corinthians, Paul proclaims we are like citizens in exile or far away from home.
* [5:6–9] Tension between present and future is expressed by another spatial image, the metaphor of the country and its citizens. At present we are like citizens in exile or far away from home. The Lord is the distant homeland, believed in but unseen (2 Cor 5:7)Jesus parables in the Gospel of Mark use the image of seed to explain the work of God within humanity.
* [4:1–34] In parables (Mk 4:2): see note on Mt 13:3. The use of parables is typical of Jesus’ enigmatic method of teaching the crowds (Mk 4:2–9, 12) as compared with the interpretation of the parables he gives to his disciples (Mk 4:10–25, 33–34) to each group according to its capacity to understand (Mk 4:9–11).Ilia Delio reviews New Seeds of Contemplation by Thomas Merton highlighting chapters about the foundational truth of self-discovery in God.
The search for true identity requires an honest self-love. Love of self is not selfishness but a humble recognition of our lives as true, good and beautiful. Without real love of self, all other loves are distorted. Lack of self-knowledge, St. Bonaventure once wrote, makes for faulty knowledge in all other matters. Merton realized that so many people are weighed down by deep hurts, anger, resentment, lost loves, broken relationships, desperately seeking to fill their lives with happiness and peace. As he himself was searching for truth and identity, he came to a deep insight, that each human person already has what they are looking for: "Within myself is a metaphorical apex of existence at which I am held in being by my Creator."Tamora Whitney describes that just people are like cedar trees, upright and fruitful, and rooted in God.
If I were singing Mass today I would sing Dan Schutte’s lovely song “Like Cedars They Shall Stand.” It’s taken from today’s Psalm. (Psalm 92) How good it is to thank and honor God. And the just people are like cedar trees, upright and fruitful, and rooted in God. The kingdom of God is like the flora. The small seed grows into the large plant. It only takes a speck to grow into something vast. The mustard seed is tiny, but the plant is like a tree. It starts small then blossoms and grows into something amazing, all the people like a forest loving and praising God.Don Schwager reminds us in the words of Isaac of Nineveh (a Syrian monk, teacher, and bishop), 613-700 A.D. that God gave us what was most precious.
"The sum of all is God, the Lord of all, who from love of his creatures has delivered his Son to death on the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son for it. Not that he was unable to save us in another way, but in this way it was possible to show us his abundant love abundantly, namely, by bringing us near to him by the death of his Son. If he had anything more dear to him, he would have given it to us, in order that by it our race might be his. And out of his great love he did not even choose to urge our freedom by compulsion, though he was able to do so. But his aim was that we should come near to him by the love of our mind. And our Lord obeyed his Father out of love for us." (excerpt from ASCETICAL HOMILY 74.28)The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 4:26-34 instructs us to keep being quirky! Love. Forgive. Pray. Give. Then, when someone asks why you are the way you are, tell them you’re just trying to be like Jesus.
St. Mark tells us that Jesus himself spoke in riddles and parables to the people around him—he even mystified his closest disciples! This was part of his strategy: to provoke his listeners to think more deeply about God and about their lives. He wanted to awaken in them a hunger for God so that they would come ask him for more. Then, when they were ready, he could open their hearts to the “mystery of the kingdom of God” (Mark 4:11).Scott Hahn reflects on the Tree of Righteousness in the texts of the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.
God Himself will empower the works He expects from us, though we freely choose to correspond to His grace. In the prophetic oracles, He scattered the seed that sprang up and became the mustard tree, large enough to accommodate all the birds of the sky, just as Ezekiel had seen. He gavethis doctrine to His disciples in terms they were able to understand, and He provided a full explanation. In the sacraments He provides still more: the grace of faith and the courage we need to live in the world as children of God.Friar Jude Winkler responds to the theme that the Lord lifts up the lowly and brings down the mighty. The Lord produces the growth. We have to share and live the Good News. We forgive, share, and smile. He reminds us of the advice to do small things with great love from St Teresa of Lisieux .
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares that Brian McLaren is not afraid to say directly that it is time for us to acknowledge Christianity’s past fraught with imperialism and colonialism.
Only by solidarity with other people’s suffering can comfortable people be converted. Otherwise we are disconnected from the cross—of the world, of others, of Jesus, and finally of our own necessary participation in the great mystery of dying and rising. People who are considered outsiders and at the bottom of society—the lame, poor, blind, prostitutes, tax collectors, “sinners”—are the ones who understand Jesus’ teaching. It’s the leaders and insiders (the priests, scribes, Pharisees, teachers of the law, and Roman officials) who crucify him.The theme of sowing seed and reversal of fortune between the lowly and the powerful underline our search for holiness as our true self walking now by faith rather than sight.
References
(n.d.). Ezekiel, chapter 17 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/17
(n.d.). Ezekiel 17:23 - The Israel Bible. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://theisraelbible.com/bible/ezekiel/chapter-17/verse-23
(n.d.). 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/2corinthians/5
(2017, January 23). Discovering the true self in God with Merton's guidance | National .... Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/discovering-true-self-god-mertons-guidance
(n.d.). Mark, chapter 4 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/mark/4
(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved June 17, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html
(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/
(n.d.). 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Mass Readings and Catholic Daily .... Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://wau.org/meditations/
(n.d.). Sunday Bible Reflections | St. Paul Center. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://stpaulcenter.com/studies-tools/sunday-bible-reflections/
(n.d.). Daily Meditations Archives - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved June 17, 2018, from https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
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