Mark 4: 26 - 34 

Sunday’s Gospel is one that many will be familiar with - the Parable of the Mustard Seed. If we think back to life in the times of Jesus; a peasant in Galilee would hope for a return of 7:1 when sowing seed for a crop. So when Jesus pictures the Kingdom of God as a wonderful harvest (returning 100:1 as he put it in another parable), his peasant listeners would envisage a future without hunger, without servitude to rapacious landlords and money-lenders. A bright future indeed!

Naturally, they and we want to know when this new way of life, this fulfilment of the Kingdom of God, will come about. Our Lord replies: ‘Be patient. Your job is to sow the seed. Something will happen out of all proportion to your part in the process, just like the disproportion of the mustard seed to a mustard bush’ (which he exaggerates into a tree sheltering birds).

God’s creative power worked in the depths of the stony ground of the tomb to raise up the Gospel Seed who is Jesus Christ. From that, a community has grown which, at its best, leads to a fair and just distribution of the world’s resources, as Pope Francis insists is a major test of authenticity of our claim to be Christian.