His Excellency,
The Most Reverend Edward K. Braxton, Ph.D., S.T.D.
Diocese of Belleville
June 16, 2024, 11:00 AM Mass
St. Teresa Parish, Belleville
“The Challenge of the Kingdom of God”
(This is the text as originally written. During the actual delivery, some passages were omitted and other comments were added spontaneously. Nota bene: This text has not been thoroughly proofread. Therefore, there may be errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.)
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
When Ludwig van Beethoven first performed his Symphony #5 with its famous thundering opening four notes, the people of Vienna asked the maestro, “What is the meaning of this powerful opening? Is it fate knocking at the door? Is it a reminder of certain death? Is it the voice of God?” Beethoven simply played the notes again and said, “That’s what it means,” suggesting music means whatever you feel, think, or imagine when you hear it. Music can have multiple meanings depending on who hears it and in what circumstances they hear it.
St. Mark tells us this morning, “Jesus spoke to the people only in parables. Then, when He was alone with His disciples, He explained the parables.” (Mark c4: v33-34) However, in fact, Jesus almost never explained His parables to His disciples. The parables of Jesus, like the Beethoven 5th, can have different meanings for different people in different circumstances. Jesus’s stories invite each of us to think about them and apply them to our personal and communal lives of faith. Mark c4: v26-34 contains two related parables about the mysterious Kingdom of God. In the Parable of the Growth of the Seed, Jesus talks about a farmer who sows his seed: “Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
It is possible to think of Jesus as both the Sower and the Seed. He sows His Word and Himself. We are the soil which can be transformed by the seed if we are open to walking by faith and not by sight. And it is Christ growing in us who gives us a share in the harvest of Eternal Life.
While the parable suggests we are the soil in which the seed grows and brings about life with God, the parable also calls us to become sowers of the seed, because if the faith which is planted in us grows to maturity, we are expected to “replant” it in the hearts and lives of the people around us. This is the hard part. Many of us keep the seed of faith to ourselves, which makes it difficult for the Kingdom of God to grow. As we honor fathers on Father’s Day, the parable tells us that Christian fathers are called to replant and nourish the seed of faith in their sons and daughters.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed is also about the Kingdom of God. “Jesus said, ‘the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.’” (Mark c4: v30-32)
In this second parable, Jesus tells us that if we receive the Word of God, though seemingly as small as a mustard seed, it can bring about the growth of the Kingdom of God. We are the “birds of the air” if we perch in the mustard tree, committing ourselves to follow Christ, thus receiving grace and forgiveness from its comfort and “shade.” Notice Jesus never tells us in either parable exactly what the Kingdom of God is, just as Beethoven doesn’t tell us the meaning of his music. Jesus only tells us what the Kingdom is LIKE! While the Catholic Church is a sign of the Kingdom, it is NOT the Kingdom; while Eternal Life is the fulfillment of the Kingdom, it is NOT the Kingdom.
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When we hear these parables year after year, most of us probably do not spend much time thinking about them, or asking ourselves how they apply to our personal spiritual journeys. If we heard the parables 20, 10, or 5 years ago, are our lives today any different because of the growth of the Word of God within us? In what new ways has the seed of Jesus Christ germinated and taken root in us? Are there new sprouts of Christian goodness budding forth?
Has the seed of Christ’s Word and example caused us to change in any way? In what sense do the stories Jesus tells guide and direct our lives and shape our priorities? Has the mustard seed grown so much in us that we have become a full-grown Christian bush, large enough for the birds of the air, that is, new disciples of Christ, can dwell in our shade? Have our concerns for the endangered condition of our world, the divided condition of our country, and the weakened condition of our Catholic Church deepened? As blooming seeds of Christ’s Word, what events around us trouble our souls, compelling us to be doers of the Word?
In the parables, Jesus is using metaphors to move us to think about our lives as Christians in a deeper way and think about the part we can and should play in bringing about the Kingdom of God.
Like those listening to Beethoven’s great 5th symphony, each of us must prayerfully determine what the parables are saying to us and what unique part we are being asked to play in making the Kingdom of God a reality.
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Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, you may be thinking that you do not spend much time reflecting on the parables of Jesus or the Kingdom of God. And that may be true of most Christians. But what if you and I became mustard seed scatterers of hope? And what if President Biden and the Democrats and former President Trump and the Republicans were to think about how they could be seed scatterers of truth and honesty for the Kingdom as they seek the presidency? What if Prime Minister Netanyahu and the leaders of Hamas were to think about how they could be seed scatterers for the Kingdom and seek in good faith a path to end the irrational, violent war in Israel, the land of Jesus’s birth, a war that has killed more than 1,200 Jewish people, taken 120 hostages, killed 37,000 Palestinians, and virtually destroyed Gaza. What if President Putin of Russia and President Zelensky of Ukraine were to think about how they could be seed scatterers for the Kingdom in order to negotiate an immediate end to Russia’s immoral war of aggression? What if? You are thinking, “be realistic, Bishop. These leaders are never going to do these things. And you are probably right! Sadly, most likely, they never will. All the more reason why each of us must commit ourselves to be seed scatterers of the Word for the sake of the Kingdom of God. What a powerful symphony that would be!
Praised Be Jesus Christ. Both Now And Forever! AMEN!