11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B – Green)
ANTIPHON (cf. Psalm 27(26):7-9)
O Lord, hear my voice, for I have called to you; be my help. Do not abandon or forsake me, O God, my Savior!
INTRODUCTION:
We know that of we plant a seed, in time it will grow to be a biog tree that bears abundant fruit and serves as aleafy home to birds. In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that this is how the reign of God works in our lives and in the world. Its beginning is rather small, but given time, it grows into something big.
FIRST READING (Ezekiel 17:22-24)
RATIONALE: The prophet Ezekiel compares the restoration of the exiled Israelites to the growth of a tender shoot to a mighty cedar. This symbol will be used by Jesus to express to growth of the Kingdom in our midst.
Thus says the Lord GOD: I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot, and plant it on a high and lofty mountain; on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs. And all the trees of the field shall know that I, the LORD, bring low the high tree, lift high the lowly tree, wither up the green tree, and make the withered tree bloom. As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.
RESPONSORIAL PSALM: (Psalm 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16; Response: cf 2a)
R – Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
1. It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
to proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night. (R)
2. The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God. (R)
3. They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong. (R)
SECOND READING (2 Corinthians 5:6-10)
RATIONALE: Paul encourages the Christians in Corinth to continue to be confident. Amid all sorts of troubles, he himself is full of confidence because he relies on Christ.
BROTHERS and sisters: We are always courageous, although we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yet we are courageous, and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord. Therefore, we aspire to please him, whether we are at home or away. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive recompense, according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.
ALLELUIA
R – Alleluia, alleluia.
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the word. All who come to him shall live for ever.
R – Alleluia, alleluia
GOSPEL (Mark 4:26-34)
JESUS said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
REFLECTIONS:
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to beseech the heavenly Father that his kingdom may come on earth. Jesus himself already inaugurated the coming of God’s kingdom when he lived and worked around Palestine. We can all ask ourselves: what happened after the inauguration? Was the coming of God’s kingdom stalled along the way? When confronted with natural catastrophes and man-made tragedies, we sometimes become impatient and turn skeptical.
The Apostle Paul in today’s Second Reading is also beset by impatience. He eagerly awaits the second coming of Christ; but while Paul remains in his own body, he continues to fulfill his mission. Later, he will leave behind not only a remarkable legacy of accomplishments, but the whole of Paul’s life becomes a most valuable fruit: “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
Ezekiel is a messenger of hope to his fellow Jews who like him are exiled to Babylon. On his sixth year as a slave, the 30-year old Ezekiel is called by God to prophesy to his own people who experienced a national disaster. The remaining Jews who lived in Jerusalem were captured and brought as slaves to Babylon. With this second wave of Jewish exiles, Israel as a people has practically become non-existent.
Through Ezekiel, God speaks a message of hope to the exiles. A tender shoot, taken from the crest of the cedar tree, will be planted on the mountain heights of Israel. The tender shoot will grow into a grand cedar tree itself, reminiscent of the glorious reign of king David. The cedar symbolizes restored greatness to Israel, while the image of birds perched on its strong branches heralds that nation’s restoration as the world’s important kingdom.
The full meaning of Ezekiel’s prophecy will only come to light by Jesus’ own parables in today’s Gospel. The prophecy is not pointing towards Israel alone but ultimately refers to God’s universal kingdom. Jesus cites two parables to describe the coming of God’s kingdom, using a common image for both: a tiny seed. It has its own life-cycle, and transforms itself from a seed to a sprout until it slowly yields fruit, then the ripe grain.
Jesus’ second parable dovetails with the cedar tree prophecy of Ezekiel in our First Reading. Jesus compares the coming of God’s kingdom to a mustard seed, which, although very small, can grow into a bush and rise to about ten to twelve feet tall. On its branches, Jesus says, the birds of the sky shall dwell.
Jesus already planted the seeds of the heavenly kingdom. The seeds have their own life and power. They are also full of potential and can in fact provide shade and nourishment to the ‘birds of the sky,’ embracing all of God‘s people. Let us not be impatient with the difficult challenges in life, but serve instead as God’s farmhands who scatter seeds of God’s kingdom. He will take care of the rest until the time of harvest.
COMMUNION ANTIPHON (Psalm 27(26):4)
There is one thing I ask of the Lord, only this do I seek; to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.
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The Mass Readings are from iBreviary (www.ibreviary.com) and Reflections by Fr. Paul J, Marquez, SSP is taken from the 10th of June, 2018 edition of Sambuhay Missalette, printed in the Philippines by St. Paul’s Media Pastoral Ministry. The views and opinions in this post are those of the authors and does not necessarily reflect those of the blog site.
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