Homily: 11 Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers here this evening.

Some of us were blessed to have strong, loving, and faithful fathers, men who struggled to support and lead their families through what were often difficult times and circumstances.

We remember, too, that no man is perfect and most of those imperfections are mere pieces of our humanity. 

And so, we thank God for all fathers, living and dead, and prayerfully lift them up to the Lord.

Now let’s turn to our readings...

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Readings: Ez 17:22-24; Ps 92; 2 Cor 5:6-10; Mk 4:26-34

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What is this “Kingdom of God” about which Jesus always speaks?

Most of us tend to associate worldly kingdoms with places, but God’s Kingdom is not a place like the United Kingdom, or even The Villages. And contrary to the advertising, The Villages is not paradise.

Perhaps a better translation of God's Kingdom is, “The Reign of God.” Fortunately, Jesus tells us a lot, so if we listen to Him, we can learn something about God’s reign.

He tells us it’s near and to pray for its coming. And in parables He tells us what it’s like: like leaven, a pearl, a net, hidden treasure, and even a mustard seed. He compares it to a landowner and a king. But He doesn’t explicitly tell us what it is, does He? What exactly is this Kingdom, this Reign of God?

Back then, some people thought they knew. For the Pharisees it was strict adherence to Mosaic Law. The Zealots, the Jewish revolutionaries of Jesus’ time, thought of it as an earthly kingdom to come, ruled by God. The Essenes, ascetic Jews, had withdrawn into the desert to await the Kingdom, the end of the world…and then what? They weren’t really sure.

Yes, they all saw the Kingdom differently. But hundreds of years earlier, through Ezekiel, both priest and prophet, God spoke His Word to His people, also in a kind of parable. God gave them a hopeful glimpse of His Reign using the metaphor of a tender shoot planted on a mountain – where “it shall put forth branches and bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar.” In that Kingdom, God tells us, He will bring low the high, and will lift high the lowly. Who knew that the tree was a Cross on the hill of Calvary, lifting high the fruit of salvation?

Note Jesus’ very first words in Mark’s Gospel:

“The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”[Mk 1:15]

These are important words. After all, they’re the first words He preaches in His public ministry. So, what do they tell us?

Well, one word jumps out at us: the world “Repent!” John the Baptist used it often as he roamed about Judea preparing the people for Jesus’ coming. And Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, told the Jews gathered in Jerusalem from all over the world, “Repent and be baptized…”

In the original Greek New Testament, the word is metanoia, meaning repentance, a change of mind. “Repent,” then, is a pretty good translation: to repent, to re-think, to think again, to think differently. Jesus, John, and Peter are all telling us to change, to undergo inner change.

In past earthly kingdoms, the King’s subjects served him, and paid him homage and obeisance. Applying this to God’s Kingdom, we are called first, to turn away from ourselves, and turn to God. We use the word “conversion,” which has its roots in the Latin word meaning, “to turn around.” True repentance, then, is a complete change of thinking, a turning around of mind and heart.

St. Paul expresses this same idea when he writes:

“…put away the old self of your former way of life…and be renewed in the spirit of your minds” [Eph 4:22-23].

Because our God is Who He is, in that turning we find the answers to all that we seek: peace, freedom, justice, forgiveness, true happiness, eternal life. These answers don’t come from the world, a world in which everything passes away. No, they come only from God, from the Father, the source of all that is good. 

And this, brothers and sisters, is the Good News. The Kingdom is near; God’s reign is near. Because the Risen Jesus is here, so too is the Father, and the Holy Spirit who does God’s work in the world. The invitation to the Kingdom is extended to everyone. Jesus opens the gates of His Kingdom to all of us, no matter our sins.

We need only “repent, and believe in the Gospel” – conversion and faith. We need only turn around, away from our sinfulness and to our loving Father. The Father’s kindness, His forgiveness, His love for each of His children knows no limits. As Jesus told us:

“…seek His kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides [Lk 12:31].

Again, this is the Good News: the coming of God’s Reign is Jesus’ revelation that God is love. But we’re not called simply to sit back, bask in God’s love, and enjoy the view. No, we’re all called to take that love to others, to be “God-bearers”, to be heralds of the Kingdom.

Whether you’re retired or work for a living, you might be thinking, “Wait a minute. This is God’s Kingdom we’re talking about, and I’m just one person tucked away here in central Florida.” You and I might not know the fulness of God’s plan for us, but we’re not called to sit on our hands.

Just consider the mustard seed in today’s Gospel. Small, insignificant, and yet it’s a seed, filled with potential. It need only be planted in the earth. Watered and nurtured by God’s gifts of rain and sunlight, the tiny seed becomes a plant so large the birds dwell in it.

In a sense, our Gospel takes us back to Genesis, when God took a piece of earth, and breathing His Spirit into it, created Adam. One meaning of the Latin word humus is earth. Yes, we are human, from humus, created from the earth. And God plants that tiny seed in the earth, in you and me, where it’s a living sign of the Kingdom to come.

God does all the work to make it grow. We need only turn to Him and accept it. We need only repent, walk by faith as Paul instructs us, place our trust in Him, and allow the Spirit to work within us. He will turn that seed of faith into something wondrous, something beyond our comprehension.

In one of his books, Pope Benedict wrote about the Kingdom present in three different ways.

It is present in Jesus Himself. Jesus is the Kingdom; He is God’s presence among us. It is also a reflection of God’s reign within us, in our inner being, growing and reaching out to others. Finally, the Kingdom is expressed in the Church, its continued presence in history’s time and place. And often, we see it manifested in all three dimensions.

When I was lad, a blind man in our town had a shack, a newsstand, near the railroad station. He sold newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, and candy. In those days, long before political correctness, everyone just called him Blind Joe. He didn’t mind. In fact, the sign over his shack read, “Blind Joe’s.”

One winter day his space heater shorted and caused a fire that destroyed the shack. Joe lost everything. But the very next day one of our parishioners provided all the funds to rebuild the newsstand and recruited a local builder to do the job. Within three days it was rebuilt and restocked with all new inventory. It must have cost several thousand dollars, a lot of money back in the fifties. An anonymous gift, even Joe didn’t know who the donor was. Only our pastor and a few others, including my dad, knew. And Dad never told me. 

A local reporter interviewed Joe, and asked him, “What do you think of the men who did this for you?” Joe just said, “I thank God for those men, but it was really Jesus.”

With those words Blind Joe echoed the psalm we just sang, “Lord, it is good to give thanks to you,” and then proclaimed the meaning of the kingdom. Yes, it’s Jesus, His Reign in the world, manifested through you and me. As a living sign of the Kingdom of God, that parishioner, and the others who helped him, did the work of the King, the work of Jesus Christ. The reign of the living God was present within them.

You see, brothers and sisters, the Kingdom is you and I; and Christ is our King. The Kingdom is what we are, the Church, taking Jesus Christ into a world that needs Him so very badly today.

May the peace of the Kingdom be with you all.