Homily for the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, June 16, 2024. Gospel: Mark 4:26-34. Theme: The Seed of the Kingdom of God
In today’s gospel Jesus refers to the “Kingdom of God”, a phrase that’s used 122 times in the New Testament, with 90 of these coming from the lips of Jesus himself! I am not saying this just to throw out some kind of Bible-study stats but to emphasize and re-emphasize that the Kingdom of God was Jesus’ primary focus and theme in all of his preaching, teaching and miracles. And so it should also be extremely important to us who follow him and bear his name as Christians.
And so we need to ask: what is the "Kingdom of God''? It’s a concept rooted in the Old Testament that God’s royal authority, that is, his reign or rule of justice, peace and blessing for all people will one day be manifested on planet Earth. The prophets foretold that this would happen most powerfully and perfectly when the Messiah arrived. This is why the very first words out of Jesus’ mouth when he began his public mission were these, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” (Mk 1:15) This was a way of declaring that he was indeed the Messiah, that the time had finally arrived for the prophecies to be fulfilled. Through him, God was personally breaking and bursting into human history, and inaugurating his Kingdom of love, peace and justice.
Jesus calls everyone he encounters to enter into this Kingdom. And in his words which I quoted above, he informs us that the way we do so is by first of all repenting of our sins. You see, our sins are tangible signs or proof that we are not living under the royal authority of God but according to our own authority. We have to dethrone ourselves so that God can have that primacy of place in our lives. The next step then is to believe or trust in the Gospel. Trust is a sign and fruit of a confident relationship, so believing in the Gospel means that we trust in Jesus because we believe he only wants what is good for us.
So you see, the phrase, “Kingdom of God'' doesn't refer to a place but to an attitude of loving submission to God and the acceptance of his reign within us and over us. To live in the Kingdom of God means to encounter Jesus Christ and receive from him a renewed and transformed inner state of being. This spiritual experience first happens for us at Baptism and is deepened at Confirmation. Jesus himself taught us this when he said, "No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” (Jn 3:5) Water and the Spirit. Baptism and Confirmation. And he called this spiritual rebirth in the Kingdom being “born again” because it gives us a new beginning. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the grace of God changes us from the inside out and transforms even the most wrecked and devastated of lives. This is because God doesn’t hold grudges nor keep us locked in the box of who and what we once were. God looks at what we are now and sees what we want to become.
So, if having been baptized and confirmed doesn’t seem to have made us any different from non-baptized people, does this mean that the seed of the Kingdom was not planted within us? Not, not at all. But what it might mean is that the seed has not received the proper care and feeding it needs to be activated and begin sprouting a noticeable Christian life. However, it is still there deep within us, waiting for the attention it needs. You see, most of us were baptized as infants and so Confirmation was our opportunity to reaffirm that Baptism and claim its grace in our lives. But it’s quite possible and probable that we went to our Confirmation without any awareness of or real desire for what it offered us.
But that can change and the seed of the Kingdom can still be activated! Once we realize that we truly need God and submit our hearts to his royal authority in our lives, the Kingdom-seed of new life planted within us can begin to germinate and grow. If we water it with prayer, fertilize it with the Word of God, and feed it with the Eucharist, it can become like the mustard seed mentioned by Jesus, which goes from being an almost insignificant seed to becoming a large impressive tree.
So anyone who has been baptized and confirmed can make a conscious and deliberate choice to activate this growth. At any time in their lives they can begin experiencing the spiritual joy of what it means to be born again! This experience will lead us to enthrone Jesus as King of our hearts and Master of our lives. It will allow and enable Christ to establish his reign of peace, his rule of love and his realm of justice within us, through us and to those around us.
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