This is the time of the year that many of us our celebrating the joy of seeing our children or grandchildren graduate from school.
It may be a first step of going from preschool to kindergarten.
Or it could be finishing high school and entering college, a trade school, or the military.
It might even be receiving a degree to become a teacher, nurse, or engineer or finishing an apprenticeship to becoming a journey electrician.
These accomplishments are something that started out small with hopes and dreams of each of these children when they were little infants.
Through the love and nurturing we all provide it help them grow.
It began with the trust that God put in us by provide us the gift of a child.
Putting our trust in God we had our children baptized so they could grow as a child of God.
Like the mustard seed we heard about today, these children have grown and are now producing fruit in God’s kingdom.
Jesus came to bring about the Kingdom of God.
His parables give us insight on how the Kingdom comes about.
Jesus ushered in this Kingdom by becoming man and living among us.
He showed us how to bring the Kingdom about, through self-sacrificial love.
We are now in Ordinary time and many of the Gospel stories we hear about during this time are about making God’s Kingdom present by loving God and neighbor.
Christ began the work.
It’s now our job as the Body of Christ, His hands and feet, to carry out his mission.
How do we accomplish this mission?
We don’t do it on our own.
It’s all dependent on God.
He provides the seed of faith.
He also makes possible the soil to grow through our family and Church.
Today’s parable gives us some insight.
The seed sown represents God’s work in us through our faith.
It starts out small with the seed of faith being planted in us at baptism.
Most of us were baptized as infants and given that gift of faith through our parents.
That faith is then nurtured through our families and faith community creating the soil for the seed to grow.
The sacraments of initiation, first communion and confirmation, gives us the grace to grow in our faith.
The Word of God we study and hear at Mass, strengthens our faith so we learn to be disciples of Jesus and spread the Kingdom of God.
As we grow in our faith, we begin to branch out and serve others by showing our love of neighbor.
It may start through small acts of kindness among our families & faith community.
It may be as simple as a little child bringing in a can of soup for our food pantry.
But it can then grow into a family bringing a bag of groceries.
This grows into hundreds of families donating their food and time to serve the hundreds of families at our food pantry each year.
All of this made possible from the gift of faith from Jesus and establishing his Church to help us love God and our neighbor.
Something very small, an infant being baptized,
like a mustard seed, turns into something large,
a whole community of faith,
feeding hundreds of families every year,
like the mustard plant with large branches for many birds to dwell in.
We have a good reminder of God’s work in our lives each time we pray the our Father.
We may not recognize it because we pray it so often and may not pay attention.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Each time we pray the Our Father we are calling upon God to bring about heaven here on earth.
We are subjects of his Kingdom and our given the grace to help bring about heaven on earth.
Of course, God has the power to bring about the peace of His heavenly Kingdom through divine intervention.
But God loves us so much he provides us the opportunity to be active participants in making his heaven here on earth.
So, as you go about your daily lives plant those seeds of faith, hope, and love with those in your family, friends, and community to show God’s love.
You’ll never know how those seeds will grow.
It may take years, or even decades to see the fruit, but eventually it will grow into something that you could never have imagined.
As we continue with our Mass, may the Eucharist we receive,
provide the grace to help us grow in our faith,
to help make the God’s Kingdom present through each of us,
as members of the Body of Christ.
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