The Kingdom of God Is Like a Mustard Seed Growing to Full Stature

 In today's Gospel, Luke 13: 18-21, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed that a person plants in one's garden. When the seed is was fully grown, it becomes a large bush in which birds are able to take shelter. The Kingdom of God, I believe,  is Love.  A little bit of love grows into a lots of love: marriage love, love between parents and their children, between siblings, between friends. Marriage love expands into parents bringing children into the world, nurturing, sheltering, enabling and affirming their growth. Love provides children with the solid foundation upon which to become their own person, choose independence and develop interdependence. In married love, a husband and wife's love and respect for one another leads then to become mutually submissive to one another. In that growing love for one another, they become one person, reflecting Christ's love for the church and Christ being one with us and loving us unconditionally.

In the responsorial psalm, Psalm 128, of today's liturgy, we pray:  "Blessed are those who fear [reverence] the Lord, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, thus is the man blessed who [reverences] the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion: may you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life."   We could reflect upon  this whole psalm in terms of marriage.  It might then read: "Blessed are those in marriage who reverence one another, who walk in each other's ways of righteousness! For you shall enjoy the fruit of your handiwork; blessed shall you be, and favored. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the recesses of your home; your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, thus is the man  and woman blessed who [reverence] each other. The Lord bless you;  may you experience prosperity in its various forms all the days of your life."

Above all, may love prosper in our lives--Christ's love and our own love for our spouses, family and community members!