The mustard seed

Notes of meeting on 16 June 2015


Mark 4 v 26 -32
²⁶ He also said, 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land.
²⁷ Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.
²⁸ Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
²⁹ And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.'
³⁰ He also said, 'What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it?
³¹ It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.
³² Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.'

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The mustard seed is very small, and yet it produces a great shrub. The mustard seed is tiny, insignificant, of no account in its present state; but it contains within itself all the potential to become what it is meant to be, given the proper nourishment. We might say that the mustard seed contains within it the image of the mustard tree, because the fully grown mustard tree is the intended, 'pre-set' end of the mustard seed.

We contain within us the image of God. It is the seed within us that has been sown into our nature, planted in our being, by the Creator whose image it is. And because it is an image of the Infinite, it has infinite potential; that is to say, it has capacity for infinity, for immortality. To reach that potential, to become what it is meant to be, it must be nourished by an element that is commensurate with it, something equally infinite and immortal. Only the waters of life are adequate for the task. Only divine grace made available though prayer, charity and above all in the Sacraments, can quench the thirst of our souls.

Our Faith on Sunday 14 June 2015 - The Catholic Printing Company of Farnworth

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Moses face shone after he spent time with God on the mountain and in the tent of meeting. Do we shine with God's presence? Are we reflections of his image to others?

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John 10 v 27 - 30
²⁷ The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.
²⁸ I give them eternal life; they will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from my hand.
²⁹ The Father, for what he has given me, is greater than anyone, and no one can steal anything from the Father's hand.
³⁰ The Father and I are one.