St. Anthony & Our Lady of Fatima

The Jesus who has risen from the sleep of death is the faithful hope of every disciple. Often storms sweep down on us as suddenly as the wind and waves on the Sea of Galilee, and we find ourselves unprepared for sickness, a terminal diagnosis for ourselves or a loved on, difficult personal relations, job loss.  We may find ourselves saying: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”  Yet Jesus is present in the storms and will bring us to the shore of new beginnings and new initiatives.

Mark teaches us about the kingdom by telling us two parables about seed. Parables are not easily understood, especially by those who have no particular attachment to Jesus. Parables are measures of our relationship with him. What, then is the seed growing secretly? The kingdom of God grows because of God, not because of us or our understanding. How alert are we to the living presence of the Spirit hidden in the depths of our being? The mustard seed holds before us the reality of small beginnings and God’s mysterious presence even in something resembling a weed, in something that grows like wildfire. The mustard seed encourages us to trust God who is there at the beginning and there at the end. Are we ready to take heart and trust God, to let the Spirit grow at the core of our being, to trust God’s glorious Oneness?

Jesus’s words over the bread and wine, then sharing it with his disciples, signifies his giving them a share in the atoning power of his death.  And that atoning power has as its goal eternal life with Jesus.  But it was not just those who sat at the table with Jesus who are able to share in the atoning power of Jesus’s sacrifice; Jesus opened the way for all to share in the “eternal inheritance”.  So walk with joy to share a forestate of the unending banquet.

Matthew gives us the solemn assurance that Jesus, “God-with-us” (cf. Matt 1:23), will be with the church until the end of history  His is no “absentee lordship” but a presence of a servant Christ who wishes to liberate rather than dominate.  His church must also be a humble servant that remembers its authority is not absolute but derived from Jesus; a church that identifies with those who are a very human mix of faith and doubt; a church that avoids all triumphalism and insensitivity to the wounded people of our world.