kingdom-of-god

God brings about the growth of his creation, us included.

Two parables are presented by Jesus today in the Gospel of Mark. Both are presenting what the kingdom of God is like. The first presents a man who sows seeds, and the second is a mustard seed that is planted. In both cases, the seeds germinate, sprout, go through the process of growth, and become mature plants. The kingdom of God is like these plants in that God works through the smallest of and many times, unnoticed beginnings. Also, God’s timing is not our timing. In our rapid-paced world of instant access, we would do well to slow down.

God not only begins small, and on his own timetable, but he often works beyond the realm of our awareness. This is evident in the first parable offered by Jesus: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how” (Mk 4:26-27). This is not to say that God has set everything in motion and is indifferent or despondent to his creation. Quite the opposite.

God has a plan. He has been and continues to be intimately engaged in guiding his creation and in each of our lives as well. He revealed this truth to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God is present, invites us to be in relationship, and once we accept, seeks for our relationship to grow. Like the farmer in the first parable, “I have planted seeds but don’t see anything happening.” But slowly, a sprout emerges, a stalk rises, and a bud forms. We too may make an attempt at prayer and feel nothing is happening. If we intentionally make time to be with God, something is happening.

God has no need for us, and yet he has loved us into existence for our good. He invites us to know him and to participate in the spreading of his kingdom. Just think of someone who you have, for the longest time, wanted to meet. If the opportunity arose to spend time with that person, how excited would you be? How much more so if they also did not want to just meet but spend more time with you, with the intention of forming a relationship! We have the opportunity to do so with the Creator of all that exists, and not just today, or tomorrow, but for all of eternity.

God has created us to know, love, and to serve him. He invites us to be in communion with him, and to participate in his work of salvation history in simple and subtle ways. Are we aware of his invitation, are we willing to watch and pray? Are we willing to place ourselves in a posture to receive his word as well as his silence? Just as an acorn that is sown matures and grows over time into the mightiest of oaks, so may our relationship with our Loving God and Father also grow and mature that we become one with him in this life and into the next for eternity.

Photo: May we mature and flourish like these cabbage palms that even withstood the tornados of Milton.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, January 30, 2025

The kingdom of God is at hand, are we willing to see?

In today’s Gospel account, Jesus continues to answer the Pharisees’ question about “when the kingdom of God would come” (Lk 17:20) but now he is directing his response to his disciples. Jesus reminds them about how during the time of Noah and during the time of Lot many were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, buying, selling, planting, building (cf. Lk 17:26-29). In effect, other than Noah and Lot, and those few listening to them, no one else had any clue about the impending calamity or wanted to know. They were so absorbed in their own pursuits and desires that they did not heed the warnings of Noah and Lot.

Another focal point was on those who were attached to only material and finite things. When the final hour came, people on the rooftop or in the field were directed not to go back and get their possessions. Jesus pointed out succinctly, “Remember the wife of Lot” (Lk 17:32). Lot left Sodom with his wife, she did so physically, though she could not resist looking back, she was too tied to what she was leaving behind, and so she lost herself to her attachments.

Spending time speculating when the end will come is a pointless pursuit. What is more important is being aware of the kingdom of God in our midst, developing a relationship with God now. Matthew shared in his gospel account that Jesus stated only the Father knows the time or the hour as to when the end will come (cf. Mt 24:36). If we are only going to prepare at the final hour, we may be too late because we will be too attached to the things of this world to let go.

Asking, “When will the kingdom of God come?” also misses the point of what Jesus is teaching us. There is an intrinsic value in developing a relationship with God and one another, now. Growing and maturing as a disciple, now. Jesus shared in the first words of his public ministry, that “the kingdom of God is at hand” (cf. Mk 1:15). All we need to do is reach right out and grasp his extended hand of invitation and walk with him, now.

For many of the Pharisees, this meant letting go of their own power and prestige and participating instead in the living reality of God in their midst. So many of us are caught up in our day to day affairs of existing that we are barely living. We can also be distracted by false lures and attractions of security and gratification, wealth, power, pleasure, and honor, that we miss the love and wonder that Jesus wants to share with us. Jesus is inviting us to wake up, to breathe deep, to slow down, to trust him and receive his unconditional love, so that we can become aware that he walks among us. Jesus calls us, as Lot called his wife, to keep our focus on God and the things of heaven, while living in our time and place.

Lord Jesus, help us to recognize when we have taken our eyes of of you, help us to identify: the distractions and diversions, when we are choosing to put our self first, where we are in need of healing from anxiety, fear, and chronic stress, and where we are attached and bound up by apparent goods, empty, and false pursuits. Guide us, such that we, in the words of Pope Francis, “understand what faith means when we open ourselves to the immense love of God that changes us inwardly and enables us to see our lives with new eyes” (Costello 2013, 12). Eyes that see the kingdom of God in our midst and the promise of our eternal home.

Photo: “For from the greatness and the beauty of created things their original author, by analogy, is seen.” – Wisdom 13:5

Costello, Gwen. Walking With Pope Francis: Thirty Days with the Encyclical The Light of Faith. New London, CT: Twenty Third Publications, 2013.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, November 14, 2025