Jesus uses Parables to teach about the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is being born, is coming to be, in and through His disciples. Their struggle for a new humanity and a new community will drive all darkness away. It is not something we experience only on the other side of the grave. It is here! It is now! It is in the very heart of us! And boy do we know it when it speaks and makes itself known!
Parables are not like other stories. They are laden with depths of meaning which cannot be accessed by the casual listener. Serious apprentices listen over and over again to the Parable so that it might reveal its meaning and offer up its treasure to us. Ordinary events illuminate spiritual realities. The Kingdom of God is like this, but it isn’t not like this either. The images are deliberately open ended. They open a territory but do not map it. They discipline the heart to look in certain direction, but they do not tell the heart what it will see. What the teacher is trying to do is to raise awareness, to heighten the consciousness of the disciple.
This Sunday, we are given the gift of two Parables. The first is about seed and soil and urges us to trust the natural growing process. Once contact has been made between the seed (the word) and the earth (the receptive heart) a process of development begins. This process is more mysterious than we know and we should not interfere in it. We can live our lives and we can sleep easy. Sower Control is not permitted! Hence the story of the farmer who wanting to see it all, poked around his crop every day and ended up with nothing. For those who lack trust, nothing grows! But for those who trust, the miracle unfolds. Step by wonderful step we gaze on the ripeness that will be harvested to become bread for the hungry.
The second Parable is very reassuring. God likes to hide in small things. The greater is contained in the lesser. What we now know may be as small as a mustard seed. But once the seed has been sown into mystery it will grow. What will be harvested will be the enhanced ability of disciples to defend, shelter, protect and comfort others.
The Gospels make it clear that Jesus does not want casual listeners among His disciples. He wants to give His words to serious apprentices. His words are wings. He sees more in us than we see in ourselves. It takes real humility to know ourselves as mustard seeds and to sit in the presence of the One who sees us as the sheltering tree of life.
Paul Murray’s poem, ‘Know Yourself’ captures some of this energy.
There is a world within you no one has ever seen,
A voice no one has ever heard, not even you.
As yet unknown, you are your own seer,
Your own interpreter.
And so, with eyes and ears
Grown sharp for voice or sign
Listen well-
Not to these words
But to that inward voice
That impulse beating in your heart
Like a far wave.
Turn to that source, and you
Will find
What no one has ever found.
A ground within you
None has ever seen.
A world beyond the limits
Of your dreams horizon.
(The Absent Fountain [Dublin:Daedalus Press,1991]12)
