11th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Kingdom of God in our Daily Life

Everyday in the news we hear of killings, violence, oppression, suffering, and poverty of majority of our people while an elite few bask in power and wealth. The power of evil seems overwhelming, and the world as a prosperous place seemingly presents itself only for a select few.

In the gospel today, Jesus paints a different picture. Despite all the ugliness and messiness in the world today, the Kingdom of God is very much present and alive in the world today. How did Jesus show this? He showed this by way of parables. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us two parables. But before we look at the two parables of Jesus in the gospel today, let us talk a little bit about parables.

Jesus unlike his contemporary teachers mainly taught in parables. Parables in simplest term are stories. Through parables we see Jesus as a master story teller. Jesus used parables or stories drawn from experiences of daily life to challenge the people, to re-imagine their lives and discover the Kingdom of God hidden underneath their daily existence. Thus, we hear Jesus many times in the gospel, after telling a parable would say, “Those who have ears, hear; those who have eyes, see!” (Mark 4: 9; 23, Matthew 11: 15, Luke 8:8). This shows Jesus’ repeatedly challenging his people to hear and to see the breaking-in of God’s reign right in their midst. In the everyday life, there are pointers, and signs of the reign of God. Although, the full realisation of the reign of God is beyond this world and beyond our time, the people can already discover and experience the magnificent presence of the reign of God in their everyday life.

Let us now look at the parables of Jesus in the gospel today. The two parables of Jesus in the gospel today talks about seeds. The first one is about the parable of the growing seed. It tells the story of the seed that a farmer sowed, grows out of its own accord. Jesus tells the parable as,

a man … scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.

In the parable, we saw that although it is the farmer who scatters the seed, the growth of the seed up to the time when it is ready for harvest, is of its own accord. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is like this. The Kingdom of God has its own power and dynamism. In Tagalog we say, “may sariling palo, ang kaharian ng Diyos ay may kanyang saring palo at dinamismo.” Despite all the evil and suffering in the world, God’s kingdom of goodness, truth and beauty will continue to grow and blossom. Even if many people will suppress goodness, justice, truth and peace, and many people are not doing anything about it, the Kingdom of God of goodness, justice, truth and peace, will still continue to grow and will reach its fulfillment in God’s time.

St. Paul expressed the same confidence in the second reading today. Despite the seeming triumph of evil, God’s kingdom is present and actively working in the world today. Why? St. Paul simply says in 2 Corinthians 5: 7, “for we walk by faith, not by sight”.

This same confidence is proclaimed by the prophet Ezekiel in the first reading. Ezekiel proclaimed that God will

bring low the high tree,
lift high the lowly tree,
wither up the green tree,
and make the withered tree bloom.
As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do (Ezekiel 17: 24).

Jesus’ parable of the growing seed which proclaims the hidden power and presence of God’s kingdom in today’s gospel, does not mean however, that God is patronizing evil and encouraging people to do nothing. A patient God works with the sinfulness and the messiness of our world. In the whole Bible, we saw how God utilizes the smallest of events, the small people, the weak and the humble, rather than the strong, the mighty, and the proud. God’s way of building his Kingdom is not the quick-fix solution of eradicating evil or the show of force to effect change but the gradual day-to-day hard work, perseverance and collective action of everyone. Ultimately, God’s small and patient ways of presence and action will pave the way for the decisive victory of God’s kingdom

This runs counter to many of the populist demands today that brags of the power of the mighty and strong to apply quick-fix solution to many of our problems today, for example, the call to kill all addicts to eradicate the menace of drug addiction, the call to bomb Muslim countries to eradicate extremism, the call to exterminate the NPA’s in order to have peace in our nation. Similarly, Jesus’ parable run counter to the populist demand of reducing the other just because they are different, for example, the call to rid of immigrants, the call to deride the LGBTQ, the call to ostracize the other of different status, color, gender and ethnicity and the call to eradicate and discard the sinners and misfits among us.

The second parable of Jesus is about the mustard seed. Jesus tells us the story about the mustard seed which is

the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade. (Mark 4: 31 – 32)

Jesus tells us that this is the same with the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven may start small and with great difficulty, but once it begins to grow, it is unstoppable. In God’s time, the small seed of the mustard plant will grow and become the biggest tree in the entire field.

Many times in the gospels Jesus proclaims that the kingdom of God is present and active in the ‘small’ people–the poor, the infamous, the powerless, the humble, and the simple people who continue to believe and struggle with God. One does not have to be president or king to make a difference; the smallest person is great and powerful. They sacrifice their time, talents and lives in giving life to others and in preparing the world for the coming of God’s kingdom by works of charity, justice and peace building. The kingdom of God is present and alive in small movements of people united and working together in building a just and harmonious society. The kingdom of God is present in our small yet constant acts of kindness, goodness and love to one another especially for the least, the last and the lost.

Jesus parables are stories of grace, patience and hope. Rather than being overcome by discouragement, the parable holds out hope for us. God has sowed good seed in each one of us and through all his creation. It is slowly growing. We just need to nurture God’s good seeds in the world today.

In a world where it seems that the devil has the upper hand, God is not quiet or just watching us from a distance. God is not indifferent to our struggle. God is not unaware of the sufferings and what still needs to be done. God is guiding us and the church in the process of bringing about a good harvest. We need to play this parable over and over again in our imagination and consciousness, especially when things disillusion and discourage us. God’s kingdom of goodness and love, truth and freedom, justice and peace will triumph in the end.