These proofs of God's reign usually start very small, like granules of yeast, as Jesus points out in His parable (Luke 13:18-21). If we have even the smallest hope, a tiny portion of faith, a wee bit of trust, or a little joy, and if we knead it in the dough of our struggles and let it rise in the warmth of our friendship with Christ, it grows. We reap countless blessings.
The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of ministry. Jesus ministers to you and asks you to minister to others. The field of our hardships can either produce pointless sufferings and wasted time and destruction, leaving us with scars that never fully heal and grief that never ends, or it can produce a ministry of outreach and compassion, blessing others as Jesus ministers to them through us, and giving us many reasons to rejoice.
To experience the reign of God in our lives right now, right here in our present pain, we must turn to Jesus to be ministered to and allow Him to use our sufferings for the sake of others, like He showed us to do by the example of His own life. It's only when we can see good coming from our hardships that our grief becomes joy and our tears become seeds that sprout into blessed fruits of God's Kingdom.
St. Paul shows us the attitude of one who lives in God: "I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us" (Romans 8:18-25). The reign of God is not a quick fix or a snap of God's almighty finger to produce a magical solution that stops every evil that we cover in prayer. It takes time. And for good reason!
Yeast is a fascinating thing. It is so small in size and yet has such a powerful effect upon the dough. The yeast works slowly and somewhat miraculously. Little by little the dough rises and is transformed. This is always something fascinating for children to watch when making bread.
This is the ideal way for the Gospel to work in our lives. Right now, the Kingdom of God is first and foremost alive in our hearts. The conversion of our hearts will rarely effectively take place in a day or in a moment. Each day and every moment is important, and there are certainly powerful moments of conversion we can all point to. But conversion of heart is more like the yeast causing the dough to rise. The conversion of heart is usually something that takes place little by little and step by step. We allow the Holy Spirit to take control of our lives in a continually deepening way and, as we do, we grow deeper and deeper in holiness just as dough rises slowly but surely.
As more dough gets added to our lives, more yeast is required, but the result is a bigger loaf of bread that can feed more people. The larger the field that gets fertilized and tilled when we get plowed over with life's difficulties, the more seeds of God's Kingdom we can sow, producing a larger crop and providing more of God's Kingdom to the world.
The reign of God is the glory revealed even in the midst of our sufferings. It's the glory that's revealed in you and me and through you and me. It is, as St. Paul calls it, hope.
Our hope is based on the redemptive power of Christ's sacrificial love. Someday, our earthly sufferings will end at the redemption of our bodies as we leave earth in the embrace of Jesus. In the meantime, by His redemptive love, our willingness to minister to others transforms all of our sacrifices into great goodness and tremendous glories here on earth.
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