Ez 17:22-24
Ps 92
2 Cor 5:6-10
Mk 4:26-34
The Bible is many things. It is a history of the world and a collection of biographies. It is a rule of life that balances prescriptions and proscriptions, the thou shalls and thou shall nots. It instructs us in how to respond to God's love and how to treat others. The psalter is the prayer book that links us to David and to Jesus, both of whom prayed the same psalms we pray today. It is a source of moral teaching and a textbook of faith. The Bible is also an exquisite form of literature that will never be surpassed.
Both Testaments use images and multiple literary forms to transmit the rule of life, to teach the prayers, to model the moral instruction, to make plain the history, and narrate the biographies, in ways that make them indelible and eternal.
Today's readings, including the psalm, define and instruct us in the simultaneous simplicity and complexity of faith using the image of the tree.
Trees supply shade and produce food. They are sources of fuel and things of great beauty; that beauty is particularly apparent during a New England autumn. In the deserts of the Ancient Near East the tree marked places where water allowed life to flourish. It is no accident that the tree became the symbol of life.
The cedar in the Ancient Near East grew to over 125 feet tall and at times twice that. It was a symbol of strength, it was a sign of God's creation. It was a place of safety for the birds that took shelter in its branches, and a place of refreshment for those who sought relief from the heat under its branches. It was truly a tree of life. All from a small shoot planted by God on a mountaintop.
Many of Jesus’ parables turn on the question of faith, how it is nurtured and strengthened; how it directs, or should direct, our lives, how, though given freely and without cost, it requires care and attention if it is to flourish, grow, and continue to sustain us. Nurturing our faith and living according to that faith is the path to the eternal life promised by Jesus' act of self-surrender. Like the care of a shoot planted in the ground nurturing faith requires our involvement on a daily basis with prayer, meditation on scripture, and frequent reception of the Eucharist..
Jesus tells us in both of the short parables in today's gospel that once the seed of faith is planted, it germinates and grows and, when cared for, becomes what it is meant to be.
In the first parable the seed grew though the farmer could not describe how. Despite being unaware of the early stages of growth, the farmer trusted that it would grow. And, with time a small seed buried in the ground, nurtured, weeded, and cared for, led to the mature plant of ripe grain ready for harvest.
At only one or two millimeters, or 1/25th of an inch, the mustard seed of the second parable is best described as tiny.
When I was in high school in the middle of the previous century, Catholic girls wore either a crucifix or a Miraculous Medal around their necks while Protestant girls wore necklaces with crosses or a small crystal globe with a tiny and barely visible mustard seed in the center. Despite its diminutive size, the mustard seed grows into a very large bush that, while technically not a tree, can grow up to twenty feet high with a twenty foot lateral spread, easily serving as a dwelling for birds and a source of shade and comfort, to say nothing of the many uses of the mustard seed itself--which includes its use as an essential ingredient in truly prime kielbasa.
Just as it takes a long time and favorable conditions for the mustard seed to grow from 1/25th of an inch to twenty feet so it is with faith.
As we live our faith, cultivate it, and attend to it through prayer, reflection, meditation on scripture, regular confession, and frequent reception of the Eucharist, it matures.
There are periods of doubt and questioning, particularly when life becomes difficult and dark, or when the situation demands more than we think we can ever give. But, just as we speak of the growing pains of youth, the struggles leading to mature faith are a necessary to our spiritual lives.
As we persevere through difficulties, challenges, and resolve doubt our faith becomes stronger, more resilient, and more able to sustain us. As our own faith is strengthened through trial it allows us to sustain those whose faith is weak, it allows us to be a shelter for those who need to rest in the branches of our faith when theirs is shaky.
Paul writes in the Second Letter to the Corinthians, "We walk by faith, not by sight." That is the faith of the farmer who plants the seed but sees nothing until it has germinated, taken root, and begun to grow. Faith is perfectly explained in the Letter to the Hebrews as: "the realization of what is hoped for and evidence of things not seen." Through the eyes of faith we come to see the cross as the tree of all life. Only through the eyes of faith can we see the cross as the tree through which we were granted salvation and forgiveness of sin.
The cedar of the first reading, the palm tree of the psalm, and the tree that grows from the tiny mustard seed, all remind us of the prophecy to restore the House of David. A prophecy fulfilled through Jesus' obedience to the Father, who, through His death on the cross on the tree of life, defeated death forever.
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The photos are from Horseneck Beach near Westport, MA, a town that sits on the border with Rhode Island. Have gone down there on rare occasion, usualy in the off-season, to cover Mass. Made a few trips to the beach while staying at the rectory. The beach is a state park with no diversions such as restaurants, boardwalks, souvenir shops, or other forms of pollution.
+ Fr. Jack, SJ, MD
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