Our faith should be like the minuscule mustard seed that blossoms into a large fruitful tree.
Today’s Mass propers are taken from the 6th Sun. after the Epiphany.
Below is an explanation on the Gospel (Matt. 13:31-35) from Dom Prosper Guéranger.
“Our Lord here teaches us, under the symbolism of two parables, what we are to believe concerning his Church, which is his Kingdom, – a Kingdom that rises indeed here on the earth, but is to be perfected in Heaven.
What is this grain of mustard-seed, which is hid under ground, is unseen by man’s eye, then appears as the least of herbs, but, finally, becomes a tree?
It is the Word of God, at first hidden in Judea, trampled on by man’s malice even so as to be buried in a tomb, but, at length, rising triumphantly and reaching rapidly to every part of the world. Scarcely had a hundred years elapsed since Jesus was put to death, and his Church was vigorous even far beyond the limits of the Roman Empire.
During the past nineteen centuries, every possible effort has been made to up-root the Tree of God; persecution, diplomacy, human wisdom, – all have tried, and all have but wasted their time.
True, – they succeeded, from time to time, in severing a branch; but another grew in its place, for the sap of the Tree is vigorous beyond measure. The birds that come and dwell upon it, are, as the Holy Fathers interpret it, the souls of men aspiring to the eternal goods of the better world.
If we are worthy of our name of “Christians,” we shall love this Tree, and find our rest and safety no where but beneath its shade.
The Woman, of whom the second parable speaks, is the Church, our Mother. It was she that, from the commencement of Christianity, took the teaching of her Divine Master, and hid it in the very heart of men, making it the leaven of their salvation.
The three measures of meal which she leavened into bread, are the three great families of mankind, the three that came from the children of Noah, who are the three fathers of the whole human race.
Let us love this Mother of ours; and let us bless that heavenly leaven, which made us become children of God, by making us children of the Church.”
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