O, to be like one of the disciples, to whom Jesus explained
everything in private as the Gospel lesson in Mark tells us (Mk 4:26-34). What did He tell them about the Kingdom of God
that He did not tell the crowds of ordinary people to whom He spoke through
parables? Did He make God’s message clearer to them? I don’t know the answer to
that. But what can be much clearer than the image of a tiny mustard seed
growing to become a large plant or a kernel of corn growing to a plant that
yields a thousand-fold in the harvest? Even a child can understand these images
of the Kingdom of God as a reality that expands miraculously as our faith
grows.
Jesus wants to use
each one of us for the building up of His Kingdom. We may feel as though we cannot do much, that
we are not as gifted as others, that we will not be able to make much of a
difference, but that’s not true. The
truth is that each one of us is packed with unbelievable potential that God
wants to bring to fruition. He wants to
bring forth from our lives glorious blessings for the world. All we must do is allow Him to work.
Like a seed, we must allow ourselves to be planted in the
fertile soil of His mercy through faith and surrender to His divine will. We must be watered by daily prayer and allow
the rays of the Son of God to shine on us so that He can bring forth from us
all that He desires and has planned from the foundation of the world.
But can we simply live by faith? While the idea is not
complicated, the practice seems to be for most of us. We lose our confidence
and our faith dims. We struggle with suffering and we draw back, seeking more
certainty, more details, and more reassurance. We see in Hebrews (Heb 10:32-39)
and the Psalms (Ps 37:3-4, 5-6, 23-24, 39-40) that during times of affliction,
we should be even more confident that God’s will and the Kingdom of God are our
refuge. Even while suffering, we need to endure and continue to do the will of
God to keep our lives on track. Trusting in the Lord and doing the will of God
will make our steps surer and give us more confidence in God’s promises.
We will experience distressing times in life where we will
lose our confidence in ourselves and in our faith. Those distresses can shake
our beings and threaten our sense of our very identities. When that happens, we
should draw on our baptism experience and the promises God made to love us and
care for us as a member of the body of Christ. Drawing closer to HIm is how we
can experience the Kingdom of God and live by faith in confidence and without
fear. If we could just love each other
and reassure each other of God’s love, we would see the Kingdom of God grow
miraculously.
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