Jesus teaches about the kingdom of God.

Jesus often uses parables to explain something more complex and abstract, which will help the audience understand things better and faster. He most typically uses parables from peasant backgrounds because they were familiar to the listeners from their everyday lives.

In today’s Gospel, using the parable of the grain, he masterfully explained God’s Word. These parables concern the growth of a seed. The first was about a seed that grew on its own. The second concerns the harvest. As the apostles listened to the second parable, they could look into the future with the eyes of faith and see the century-old tree of God’s kingdom – the Church, which, like a bristly tree, will be branched out over the whole world. We know that this mustard seed is the smallest of all.

Christ and His twelve apostles grow through the centuries and gradually become mossy trees. We wonder that that little group in an unknown land, Palestine, without education, will penetrate the whole world, and today the Church is spoken of as a gigantic grouping of believers, of which there are nearly one billion on earth. This is all the more strange when we remember the words of the Lord Jesus, who advises the apostles not to take with them a purse, nor a bag, nor two dresses, nor sandals, nor money in their wallet, but to go and proclaim His words.

The results are modest at first. The seed grows slowly. The church grows quietly, unobtrusively, modestly. But this seed is potent. It cuts through the hard rock of the Pharisees; it is not destroyed by the heat of persecution, hunger, and the thirst for oppression and violence. It grows; it takes root even in environments where it is resisted, where it is not welcome.

Let us remember the first century of persecution up to the Edict of Milan in 313. The emperor’s soldiers, servants, close relatives are believers. The grain is beginning to show itself as a healing force in society. Even though many want to kill it, it is winning to suppress it. One dead seed begets ten more. These parables contradict those who want to see immediate success in the apostolate, the multitude who wish to hold the fruit in their hands. Working with the grain of God’s Word is very arduous, and in addition, time must be taken into account. We know that with God, who is eternal and without beginning or end, there are no concepts of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. When it comes to the kingdom of God, we must take this into account as well. Paul instructs, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.” (1 Cor. 3:6).

There have always been, and even today, those who do not like the Church and want it to disappear. But where are those who gave minted money to honor the death of the Church? Where are those who, during the French Revolution, sang songs of praise in honor of the end of the Church? Where are the persecutors of the Church? They are not there. Their names are mentioned only as a deterrent. The Church is here! It is still young, alive, and enjoying its growth. History often tells us that the faith had to live long in the ground. When the sun of liberty shone, it surprised even the greatest enemies.

It does not tell us to be pessimistic. It does not serve us well to be hopeless, despairing, and fearful. For to us, the words of the Lord Jesus are valid: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus lives! He said this of Himself, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies” (Jn 11:25). These words gave strength to the believers when they went to the scaffold for Christ. Many went with a smile; young people, mothers with children, because their faith was firm, and they surrendered themselves to Jesus with devotion and in humility.

This part of the Gospel is full of optimism. We are to remember that the Kingdom of God is built up by good works, by humble self-reflection, because here too we are to remember the words of Jesus that the first shall be last and the last first, but also the words that the Kingdom of God is prepared for the least of these, that is, for the little ones of the Lord Jesus, who have kept their hearts pure. Therefore, let us also learn from nature. Let us take lessons from the works of God the Creator, and we will understand much.