Today's Gospel

The Smallest of Seeds

Welcome back to Radical & Relevant. I'm Matthew Kelly. I love these days. This time we get to spend together reflecting on the gospel each day. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew 13:31-35. Jesus put to them another parable, 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." 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." All this, Jesus said to the crowd in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, "I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world."

What is it that jumps out at you today? I think for me, it's this phrase: the Kingdom of heaven. I've mentioned to you before. I think any time a word or a phrase is repeated, and sometimes over and over in a single reading, it does draw my attention. And I do probably give preference to that in some way. But when you think about the kingdom of heaven, what do you imagine? What comes to mind? And Jesus talks a lot about the kingdom of heaven. He talks a lot about his kingdom on earth. He talks a lot about his kingdom in this world, his kingdom in the next world. And of course, in the Our Father, we pray that God's will will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so each of us is called to participate in the kingdom of heaven, to live in the kingdom of heaven, and to grow God's kingdom. And we don't necessarily come naturally to thinking about that.

The problem is, is that if we're not thinking about growing God's kingdom, then we're probably thinking about growing our own kingdom. And we probably don't think about it as a kingdom, but we all encounter people, and we think, "Oh, they've created their own little kingdom in that corner of that store." And that's ridiculous, right? A little corner of a store could be a person's kingdom? But it's like their whole life, it's their whole kingdom, and they use or abuse their power in their kingdom, or use or abuse their control in that kingdom. And maybe it's at a golf course, or maybe it's at a football club, or whatever it is. But it's easy to build kingdoms in this world, large or small, that have nothing to do with the kingdom of God or easily can be diametrically opposed to the kingdom of God.

And so the question I put before us today is, what are we doing to build the kingdom of heaven? What are we doing to grow God's kingdom? And is it something that we are approaching intentionally, or is it something that we think, "Oh, that's for other people. I'm just trying to muddle through my day." We can muddle through our day. We can muddle through our day with great intentionality. And by muddling through our day with great intentionality, we can build the kingdom of God. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.