July 30, 2018
Monday, 17th
Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: Jr 13:1-11
Gospel: Mt 13:31–35
Jesus put another parable before the people, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field.“It is smaller than all other seeds, but once it has fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant; like a tree, the birds come and rest in its branches.”He told them a-nother parable, “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast that a woman took and buried in three measures of flour until the whole mass of dough began to rise.”Jesus taught all this to the crowd by means of parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable. So what the Prophet had said was fulfilled: I will speak in parables. I will proclaim things kept secret since the beginning of the world.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
God’s ways are small but his handiworks are great. Consider, for example, the humble beginnings of God’s kingdom. Jesus insists that much as a single mustard seed brings forth a big tree despite its minuteness, so insignificant realities bring forth the kingdom of God.
King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about a kingdom shows to us what God’s kingdom is not. (Dn 4:7ff). In that dream the King saw a tree of great height with its top touching the heavens, and its leaves beautiful, and its fruits abundant. The king narrated to Daniel: “Under it the wild beasts found shade, in its branches the birds of the air nested; all men ate of it.” But there was a sentinel from heaven who announced that the tree would be cut down. In Daniel’s interpretation, the tree was the king himself who was about to be ba-nished because he did not recognize God.
Unlike Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom, which became too dependent upon human power, God’s kingdom is founded on the humble and the meek. God loves the small. It is not by accident that God made human beings physically small, even smaller than carabaos, giraffes, and elephants. Human beings are never meant to be powerful and great but humble and blest. In being humble one brings his humanity to perfection and lives his life to the full. Such is the ideal foundation of God’s kingdom, not the likes of the power-hungry Ne-buchadnezzar.
If we want to be part of the unfolding of God’s kingdom, we must be ready to lose for that is the surest way to gain; to surrender for that is the best way to win; to die for that is the only way to live. Because God’s small ways bring forth great things, by being small we allow God to do marvels in our lives. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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