“The kingdom of God is a kingdom of love; and love is never a stagnant pool”

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. - C.S. Lewis

Gospel Text: (LK 13:18-21)
Jesus said, “What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches.”

Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”

If seeds and yeast remain in their packages, they remain inert. Nothing happens until the package is ripped open and the contents are hidden in something else and given time to work. Then the results can be spectacular.

In a similar way, God’s kingdom has been hidden in our hearts through Baptism. That kingdom is so dynamic and powerful that it can overcome every obstacle.

We can remain unaware of this seed’s awesome potential. Or we may keep God in a package marked “Sunday” or “rule keeping” or “Church.” But when we do, we miss out on the full extent of the gift we have received.

When Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a "mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden" that eventually becomes "a large bush" where the birds of the sky can dwell in his branches, he's forming us all in the confidence we need to have for the coming of his kingdom. Even if at present, the kingdom seems to be one of the tiniest of seeds, we know that that tiny seed - the grain of wheat that fell to the ground and died so that it could bear fruit, Christ himself (Jn 12:24) - already contains within the fullness of the kingdom, just as a mustard seed already contains in "fertilized embryo" the full identity of the future mustard tree.

This process going from "seed" to "tree" is not an easy one. It's in fact arduous. St. Paul describes the sufferings as "labor pains" (ROM 8:18-25) leading to the fulfillment of our divine sonship when we will not only be called children of God but truly be children of God seeing God as he is.

Slow, natural, reliable, inevitable, awesome. That's what the Kingdom of God is like. So let the seeds of the kingdom take root!