WE WALK BY FAITH AND NOT BY SIGHT
Whether it's the tender shoot of the cedar tree or the tiny seed of the
mustard plant, what seems small now may become big and powerful... Trust in the
transforming power of God!
This Sunday
Readings show us that what is small, hard to see, and even invisible can have
great importance. Whether it's the tender shoot of the cedar tree or the tiny
seed of the mustard plant, what seems small now may become big and powerful. "We walk by faith, not by sight,"
we read today in the Second Letter to the Corinthians. We hope in that what is
unseen now, will in the future come to pass.
In the Responsorial
Psalm we acclaim: Those who are planted firmly in the Lord will flourish and
bear fruit. The just will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow tall as
cedar of Lebanon. Planted as they are in the house of the Creator, they
flourish in the courts of our heavenly Father, bearing fruit in old age.
In Mark's Gospel,
Jesus' shares a story about the tiny seed which grows to be a tree, and it
attracts birds because they loved the shade of the large branches. God's
kingdom works in a similar way. It starts from the smallest beginnings in the
hearts of men and women who are receptive to God's word. And it works unseen
and causes a transformation from within. When we yield to Jesus Christ, our
lives are transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
Jesus, gives all of
us an invitation-that we hope to lead fruitful lives with the help of His
grace. We should be like the farmer, who views the ground not only as dirt but
as a matrix of all hope. For the ground, coupled with the farmer's own
purposeful activity, is the medium of a harvest through our heavenly Father's
holy desire to bring forth life. This world is the soil of our lives. It's
where potential meets possibility and possibility allows the movement toward
perfection to bring us wholeness.
St. Paul says,
"we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent
power belongs to God and not to us" (2 Corinthians 4:7.)
Trust in the
transforming power of God!