Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - Tuesday in the 30th Week in Ordinary Time
[Eph 5:21-33 and Luke 13:18-21]What is the kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the 'birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.'" Again he said, "What shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened." [Luke]
One of the features of good story-telling is the use of hyperbole to make a point. A more common word that means much the same is exaggeration. This shows up when we use the expression "a fish tale." The exaggeration itself is not meant to be taken literally but is used to make a point. This appears throughout the Bible and is a regular feature of Middle Eastern story-telling culture. Jesus' parables are no exception. We have two examples today.
The mustard seed is used in both the Bible and the Koran in a comparison image to describe something tiny. But the plant itself is not one that birds would make a home in. A biblical botanical reference I checked says that the real identity of the plant Jesus may have referred to is unclear! The importance of the image is in how something seemingly insignificant can become very large and great. The same is true of the second image in today's gospel passage. Three measures of flour in Jesus' day was roughly 9 pounds in today's dry measures. That is a lot of flour but the amount of yeast required to make the batch rise would be quite small in comparison. Yeast just looks like dust!!
The homely images, written for early Christian missionaries, are intended to exhort them to keep trying even if the task seems enormous. When I was a Dominican student brother (the Dominican term for "seminarian"), a Dominican missionary who worked in the home missions near my hometown in Louisiana, visited me in Chicago. He knew my father who handled legal business for the little mission parish. I asked him what kept him going in an area where Catholics were few and converts were few! He said to me, "You have to remember that you can only do a certain amount of good. The important thing is to do that certain amount." I have never forgotten those words. We do what we can and trust that God can make our small efforts yield great results. We are all, in Pope Francis' words, "missionary disciples." We are mustard seeds and yeast! AMEN