“He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing.” (Mk 4:21)

“He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet, he doesn't know how it happens.” (Mk 4:21)

Today’s Passages: Mk 4:26-34; Heb 10:32-39

Meditation: Today’s meditation verse is all about the nature and growth of the kingdom of God. How naturally and beautifully Jesus paints the picture of a sower and the growth of the seed! “He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet, he doesn't know how it happens.” (Mk 4:21) Yes, it is not the sower who gives life to the seed, though he prepares the ground and scatters the seeds through the field, but God.

In the second book of Maccabees, we read an inspiring narrative of the martyrdom of a mother and her seven sons. There the mother exhorted her children with these words, “I do not know how you came to existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed. Therefore, since it is the creator of the universe who shapes each man’s beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law.” (2 Mac 7:22, 23)

God alone is the cause and source of life. We are only custodians of this gratuitous gift. Likewise, the kingdom of God grows by its own, but through the cooperation of you and me. We have to cooperate with the works of the Spirit in and through us for the growth of the kingdom. However little our life and its capacities may be, if we surrender ourselves totally God will work wonders through us. This is what he says through the parable of the mustard seed.

“The kingdom of God 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 the plants and puts forth largest branches, so that birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” (Mk 4:31, 32) How wonderful and mysterious God’s ways are! Therefore, the second reading coins the conclusion of today’s meditation and tells, “You need to be patient, in order to do the will of God and receive what he promises.” (Heb 10:36)  

              

Prayer: Lord God, we thank you and praise you for your daily eternal bread. Lord, we thank you for the graces that you have showered upon us; both physical and spiritual. We gratefully acknowledge that what we are right now is your sheer gift. Help us to offer ourselves daily as a pleasing oblation to you; a living and a holy sacrifice. We ask for this grace through Christ our Lord. Amen!

Greetings: God is with you! Have a blissful Friday!