Mark 4:26-34 - The Kingdom of God (11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 14, 2015)

Gospel:

Jesus said to the crowds:

“This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

Gospel Trivia:

The gospel consists of two parables that teaches about the Kingdom of God.  (However, it can be said that all parables tell us an aspect of the Kingdom).

These two parables follow the parable of the sower, thus the pattern of sowing, the waiting time, and the harvest.  The parables were likely meant for disciples and Christian converts who were waiting for something magnificent to happen as a manifestation of the coming of the Kingdom of God; but were disappointed or discouraged.  

The two parables were intended:

- in the case of the first parable, to reassure and require patience, because the growth of the Kingdom has started and will not be subverted, imperceptible though it may be amidst seemingly contradictory conditions;

- in the case of the second parable, to remind early Christians that the Kingdom is manifested not in the glorious, but in small beginnings which, over time, makes itself felt.

But what is the Kingdom of God?  And where is it?  How can we perceive that its reign has started? Click here.


Reference:

- Nil Guillemette, SJ, Parables for Today (Makati: St. Paul's Publications, 1987), pp. 2 - 8.