Monday 17th week in ordinary time
"Mt 13:31-35"
Another parable he put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”<br><br>He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”<br><br>All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet:<br><br>“I will open my mouth in parables,<br><br>I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
You, Lord, want to teach us to be patient; to value the importance of the little things that always begin small, like a seed. You want to encourage us when we evangelize and do our apostolate, and fruits take their time to appear. You teach us not to lose heart when souls take their time to respond to the grace of the Gospel.
The Chinese bamboo plant starts from a tiny seed. Once it's planted, very little seems to happen during the first year. Only a tiny shoot pokes out of the ground. In the second year you water and fertilize and protect it... and nothing happens. In the third, fourth, fifth years, nothing happens.
Finally, during the sixth year, the Chinese bamboo plant begins to grow. In fact, it grows 90 feet tall in just 6 weeks! The roots (that you couldn't see) were growing all the time, and now allow the stalk to grow.
The seed grows underground even if you don't see it. The leaven is transforming the flour from the inside, slowly, without anyone noticing it. And your apostolate with your friends to bring them to Jesus is working always, regardless of what you see. We should never lose heart; we should never give up! The seed is there, and is growing anyway. One day it will shoot up!
"In the moments of struggle and opposition lift up your apostolic heart: listen to Jesus as he speaks of the grain of mustard-seed and of the leaven. And say to him: 'Explain the parable to me.' And you will feel the joy of contemplating the victory to come: the birds of the air lodging in the branches of your apostolate, now only in its beginnings, and the whole of the meal leavened" (St Josemaría).
Mary, Our Hope, teach me to be patient and never lose hope.
