Today’s First Reading (Ezekiel 17:22-24) presents the image of the growth of plants. It is God who regulates what will prosper and what will not. This image will be used in the Gospel where Jesus applies it to the question of how faith grows. God will bring down the mighty and arrogant and will lift up the lowly and the humble. This is a theme we hear in the hymn sung by the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Magnificat, found at the Visitation in the Gospel according to Luke. In Ezekiel’s day, the mighty and arrogant were represented both by those who refused to repent of their evil ways in Judah and by the nation of Babylon, which had conquered the kingdom if Judah and sent its leading citizens into exile.
Whenever Jesus wanted to communicate God’s word in a way that simple people could understand, he would use examples from everyday life. Since many of his listeners were fishermen or farmers, many of his parables were based on agricultural imagery. Today we hear two parables about the growth of seeds (Mark 4:26-34). In the first parable, Jesus speaks about the mystery of the seeds’ growth. The farmer might plant the seed, but it is God who causes it to grow. Likewise, we might preach the Word of God to others, but it is God who causes faith to grow in their hearts. Faith is a gift from God to which we respond. We can pray to receive a greater measure of faith, but God gives us faith when and how it is most useful to us.
Our Second Reading today (2 Corinthians 5:6-10) reminds us that faith enables us to understand that while life in this world can be good, this is not our ultimate home. God created us so that we might share in his glory in Heaven. It is important to keep this in mind, for if we only live in and for this world, then we are bound to fall into patterns of behavior that are selfish and even selfdestructive. If, however, we keep our focus on eternity, then we will be able to live lives that are filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Every once in a while, it is good to remind ourselves that we will someday face a final judgment for what we did, or what we failed to do, in this life.
Our Responsorial Psalm (Psalm 92) forms a hymn of thanksgiving to praise God as the guarantor of justice. There is never a time that the psalmist would cease giving thanks to the Lord because God is always just. If we do what is right and keep to God’s ways, then we shall be blessed abundantly. We realize that this blessing does not always come in this life. Sometimes we must wait until the final judgment to see how God is the ultimate measure of truth and justice and love.