A friend of Abraham Lincoln one day tried to console the president in his many problems by saying, "I hope that the Lord is on our side." Lincoln replied kindly but emphatically that this was not his hope. Everyone was amazed.
Then he went on to say, "I am not all concerned about that, for we know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." The problem is not a question of God fitting into our plans because the very purpose of our existence is to accommodate ourselves to His plans.
God is always with us. In fact the Kingdom of God is within our heart. As God makes the seed sprout, grow, and ripen, so also the Word of God. God's seed should grow and reach maturity within us. In spite of the threat caused by nuclear revolution, and those caused by society like poverty, corruption, and injustice, we know God will continue to make His Kingdom grow in our hearts.
The two parables presented to us in the Gospel is not very complicated. They don't have a particularly hidden meaning and they are fairly straightforward.
In the first one the seed is strewn on the land, it goes and it is eventually harvested by the farmer. The seed is us and the farmer is God. It is our job to grow and to produce a good crop which the farmer can harvest. The other parable is very similar. Here the smallest seed of all grow into the biggest tree which in turn gives shelter to the birds of the air. Here the tiny seed represents the followers of Christ which grow into a great tree which can give shelter to the rest of creation.
Comedians say, "never let the facts get in the way of a good story." The same goes to parables. Factually the mustard seed is not the smallest seed and nor does it grow into the biggest tree of all. But we know what Jesus means, and we realize that the choice of mustard seed is also significant since mustard has a strong flavor just as Jesus' disciples ought to bring a strong flavor to the world.
What Jesus does is give images and examples, so that even the simplest person can get the gist of the message. His parables are accessible to all even if some do not understand them fully at the first hearing. In times their meaning becomes more and more clear.
One of the things we notice about these particular parables is that there is no ambiguity in them. In the one case the seed is sown, it grows and is harvested. In the other the smallest seed grows into the biggest tree and it gives shelter to the birds of the air.
The seeds do not go their own way; no, they do what they are supposed to do. The seeds sprout and grow into a tree; the seeds do nothing other than what they are intended to do. And this is another lesson for us. Our problem is that most of the time we do everything other than that for which we are intended. We constantly go our own way and ignore the path that is set before us by God. We choose to indulges ourselves and to take the line of least resistance rather than doing what God wants.
we fool ourselves into believing that we can keep the largest share of our lives for ourselves and give only a small part of it to God. It is as if we are saying 'an hour on a Sunday will be enough for him.' But God does not want a small part of us. He wants whole of us. He wants a lot. He does not want us to keep anything back for ourselves but rather that we should give everything to him. He does not want us to serve Him only for an hour here or there. No, He wants us to serve Him all the time.
The mistake we make is thinking that what we give to God is something that we take away from ourselves. But this is far from the case. The very words of Jesus tell us that we will be rewarded a hundred hold for whatever we do for God. But somehow we didn't believe it. At this point our faith fails us and we feel it necessary to constantly hold back from giving God what He wants, which is all of us. The lesson we need to learn is that God already owns us; He created us and it is only His power that keeps us in being, everything that we have comes from Him in the first place. If we show a true and deep generosity of spirit, and hand our lives over to him, then it will be completely transformative for us. We will be filled with the love of God, and enabled to live grace-filled lives bring joy to all we meet.
The lesson of life is that everything comes from God and everything returns to Him. Our job is not to hold back anything from ourselves but to give everything freely and joyously to Him, who is our Lord and Savior.
Then he went on to say, "I am not all concerned about that, for we know that the Lord is always on the side of the right. But it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation should be on the Lord's side." The problem is not a question of God fitting into our plans because the very purpose of our existence is to accommodate ourselves to His plans.
God is always with us. In fact the Kingdom of God is within our heart. As God makes the seed sprout, grow, and ripen, so also the Word of God. God's seed should grow and reach maturity within us. In spite of the threat caused by nuclear revolution, and those caused by society like poverty, corruption, and injustice, we know God will continue to make His Kingdom grow in our hearts.
The two parables presented to us in the Gospel is not very complicated. They don't have a particularly hidden meaning and they are fairly straightforward.
In the first one the seed is strewn on the land, it goes and it is eventually harvested by the farmer. The seed is us and the farmer is God. It is our job to grow and to produce a good crop which the farmer can harvest. The other parable is very similar. Here the smallest seed of all grow into the biggest tree which in turn gives shelter to the birds of the air. Here the tiny seed represents the followers of Christ which grow into a great tree which can give shelter to the rest of creation.
Comedians say, "never let the facts get in the way of a good story." The same goes to parables. Factually the mustard seed is not the smallest seed and nor does it grow into the biggest tree of all. But we know what Jesus means, and we realize that the choice of mustard seed is also significant since mustard has a strong flavor just as Jesus' disciples ought to bring a strong flavor to the world.
What Jesus does is give images and examples, so that even the simplest person can get the gist of the message. His parables are accessible to all even if some do not understand them fully at the first hearing. In times their meaning becomes more and more clear.
One of the things we notice about these particular parables is that there is no ambiguity in them. In the one case the seed is sown, it grows and is harvested. In the other the smallest seed grows into the biggest tree and it gives shelter to the birds of the air.
The seeds do not go their own way; no, they do what they are supposed to do. The seeds sprout and grow into a tree; the seeds do nothing other than what they are intended to do. And this is another lesson for us. Our problem is that most of the time we do everything other than that for which we are intended. We constantly go our own way and ignore the path that is set before us by God. We choose to indulges ourselves and to take the line of least resistance rather than doing what God wants.
we fool ourselves into believing that we can keep the largest share of our lives for ourselves and give only a small part of it to God. It is as if we are saying 'an hour on a Sunday will be enough for him.' But God does not want a small part of us. He wants whole of us. He wants a lot. He does not want us to keep anything back for ourselves but rather that we should give everything to him. He does not want us to serve Him only for an hour here or there. No, He wants us to serve Him all the time.
The mistake we make is thinking that what we give to God is something that we take away from ourselves. But this is far from the case. The very words of Jesus tell us that we will be rewarded a hundred hold for whatever we do for God. But somehow we didn't believe it. At this point our faith fails us and we feel it necessary to constantly hold back from giving God what He wants, which is all of us. The lesson we need to learn is that God already owns us; He created us and it is only His power that keeps us in being, everything that we have comes from Him in the first place. If we show a true and deep generosity of spirit, and hand our lives over to him, then it will be completely transformative for us. We will be filled with the love of God, and enabled to live grace-filled lives bring joy to all we meet.
The lesson of life is that everything comes from God and everything returns to Him. Our job is not to hold back anything from ourselves but to give everything freely and joyously to Him, who is our Lord and Savior.
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