ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – YEAR B

Upon awakening, we will look at the ripe ears

Introduction

We have the impression that we are witnessing a rapid decline in Christian values: we see man trying to rid himself of the idea of God, placing himself as the absolute point of reference, as the measure of everything, making himself the arbiter of good and evil, absolutizing the realities of this world and considering faith an obsolete aspect of life. This is secularism, a phenomenon that has remote historical roots, but which has reached its apogee in our time. How come?

In the search for the causes, there are those who attribute the responsibility to the priests who, increasingly fearful, avoid recalling those truths that, in the past, when the churches overflowed with the faithful, were the recurring themes of catechesis: the judgment of God, the eternal condemnation, the devil, the punishments.

The truth is another: today we are paying the consequences of an evangelization and a catechesis that—without wanting to attribute blame to the willing preachers and catechists of the past—was disconnected from the Word of God. The future is in our hands. The Church has become aware of the treasure that the Master has given her: the Word, the seed that waits to be sown in the world in abundance, so that faith may flourish again on a new basis and on a sure foundation.

Those who today, with difficulty, are scattering this precious seed in the World, will not contemplate the ripe ear, but at least the stem, this yes, they can ask the Lord to be able to see it.

• To internalize the message, we repeat:

“Only the grain of wheat that disappears into the earth brings forth much fruit.“

First Reading: Ezekiel 17:22-24

Ezekiel uttered this prophecy at a particularly dramatic time in Israel’s history: Jehoiachin, the last scion of David’s dynasty, was defeated, taken prisoner, and deported to Babylon. The national disaster has shaken the faith of many Israelites who wonder how the Lord, who promised David an eternal dynasty, could allow Jehoiachin to be torn from the throne of Jerusalem, as a tree is uprooted by the hurricane and carried away by the rushing waves of a river. Has God failed in the fidelity he has sworn to his chosen one?

Ezekiel, who is among those deported to Babylon, responds to this distressing question with an image. David’s family—he explains—is a luxuriant cedar tree that a brutal and ruthless woodcutter, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, cut down and tore to pieces.

However, God does not deny himself; he never denies his promises. This is what he will do: he will go to Babylon and, from the devastated cedar of David’s dynasty, he will take the last shoot and transplant it on a high mountain in the land of Israel (v. 22). This fragile and almost lifeless sucker will grow to become an immense cedar tree under which all the birds of the sky will dwell (v. 23).

The promise is astounding. With the image of the birds of the sky, the prophet alludes, in fact, to none other than the vassal kingdoms of the immense Assyrian empire (Ezk 31:6). These, he assures, will one day come under the dominion of Israel, and they will all be subject to it, as in the time of David.

Ezekiel probably dreamed of a rapid restoration of the Davidic monarchy when he uttered this prophecy, but the years passed, and his expectations were disappointed. In this situation, the expectation of a messiah, an offspring of David’s family, destined to fully realize the promises made by the Lord to his people became increasingly apparent.

In the appointed time, the prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus, the shoot of the great cedar tree that God planted on the earth. He is the long-awaited descendant of David. The birds that find refreshment in the shade of its branches represent all the peoples previously subjected to the power of evil that made them slaves. The branches, in turn, could indicate the welcoming arms of the Christian community.

This reading is an invitation to trust God, always, but especially when our expectations seem vain and our hopes dashed. He is the one who is used to “lift up the lowly tree” and can make the “dry tree sprout” (v. 24). The expressions used by Ezekiel remind us of Mary’s song: “He has put down the mighty from their thrones, he has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:52). Above all, they remind us of the supreme work of God: the resurrection of Christ. From the tomb where death reigned supreme, he raised life. If he has performed such a miracle, he will know how to transform every defeat into a victory.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10

In previous Sundays, we have already said that Paul, by now advanced in years, was beginning to feel tired. The sufferings he had endured, the persecutions, the betrayals of friends, the misunderstanding of so many brothers and sisters in the faith had marked him in body and spirit.

In the first part of today’s passage (vv. 6-8), he compares his condition to that of an exile: in this world, he feels like a stranger, he lives far from his land, with his thoughts always turned to the homeland that awaits him. He longs to be with God and Christ forever and knows that he must pass through death to reach this complete and definitive life, but this thought does not frighten him.

In the second part (v. 9), he realizes that his desire to leave this world could be understood as an escape from the difficulties, sufferings, and responsibilities of Christian communities born from his preaching. So—he concludes—as long as the Lord wants to leave me in this body, I will give the best of myself.

In the last verse (v. 10), he recalls, using the traditional image of God’s judgment, the value and decisive importance of life in this world. The future life will not be born from nothing; it will sprout from what each person will have sown in this life. The Lord will reject no one, but the ability to accept his infinite love will be different for everyone and will depend on the best or worst “gestation” lived in this world.

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34

Can the growth of the kingdom of God be accelerated? Jesus answers this question with a brief parable, a little gem, preserved to us only by Mark, which makes up the first part of today’s Gospel (vv. 26-29). It is divided into three parts of different sizes, which correspond to the three moments in which agricultural work takes place: the sowing (v. 26), the growth of the seed (vv. 27-28), the reaping (v. 29). The first and third, that is, those in which the work of the farmer is described, are reduced to a minimum: “He sows the seed in the earth” (v. 26) and “puts his hand to the sickle” (v. 29), nothing else.

Much more developed is the central one that occupies two-thirds of the parable. The narrator wants to draw attention to the time of growth; for this reason, with a certain forcefulness, not only does he avoid emphasizing the work of the farmer, but he deliberately ignores activities that the latter usually carry out, even after sowing: protection, cleaning, irrigation of the fields. Jesus wants to emphasize only one thing: the irresistible power of the seed that, once cast into the earth, grows by itself.

From the first part of the parable (v. 26), we note a detail: the evangelist does not use the technical term sow but tells of a man who sows the seed, making the broad gesture of the farmer’s arms almost perceptible as he joyfully and unsparingly scatters the precious grains everywhere. This is how the Gospel message must be spread, in profusion, and it must be launched into the earth, not in a defined and restricted field, but everywhere, in the whole world. This is an invitation to overcome any exclusivism; no people can consider God’s blessings reserved for themselves.

After the sowing season comes the moment when man’s work ceases (vv. 27-28), days and nights follow one another, and the farmer sleeps and watches without being able to intervene in the growth. It is useless for him to get busy, get restless, or worry; the process underway now no longer depends on him; if he gets restless if he enters the field, he only causes trouble, he tramples and damages the tender shoots. All he must do is wait. In fact, in silence and almost imperceptibly, the miracle begins, the seed sprouts from the earth.

The description of the growth is accurate: first, the green and tender stem appear, then the ear, and finally, the ripe grain. A development that leaves one astonished and enchanted, but that cannot be forced; it requires time and patience. The assimilation of the Gospel message is not immediate; the work of a person’s inner transformation requires days and years. However, once it has penetrated the heart, the word of Christ sets in motion an unstoppable dynamism, even if slow. Those who have heard it never remain the same.

One of the most common temptations to the apostles of the Gospel is discouragement. They often become despondent if they do not immediately notice some concrete results of their preaching. The message of the parable is addressed primarily to them. If they are confident that they have proclaimed the authentic message of Christ, if they have not confused it with the wisdom of this world, if they have not weakened its disruptive force by adding a pinch of human common sense, they must cultivate the intimate certainty that the fruits will be plentiful.

The season and the abundance of the harvest do not depend on them but on the soil, more or less fertile, in which the seed of the word has fallen. A model preacher is Paul, who declared to the Corinthians, “I planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who made it grow” (1 Cor 3:6). The process of maturation must be respected. Those who want to accelerate it run the risk of letting themselves be caught up in a frenzy; they convince themselves that they can substitute their action for that of the Spirit and, if they intervene, they quickly lose control and even resort to unfair methods, they use coercion, they do not respect freedom, they use psychological blackmail. Since the time of St. Augustine, those who have come to justify the use of the sword to force conversion are proof of what aberrations the lack of respect for the time required for the growth of the seed leads to.

The parable challenges everyone: parents, educators, and those in charge of the Christian community who, although animated by the best of intentions, sometimes allow themselves to be taken by impatience, haste, and efficiency, with the sole result of appearing irritating.

Much of the recommendations of teachers of the spiritual life consist of pressing invitations to commitment, to tireless activity, to feverish work. Today’s Gospel recalls another aspect, equally important. There are times when it is necessary to “sleep,” that is, to know how to wait, to keep calm, and to sit and contemplate in amazement the seed that sprouts and grows by itself. The fruits will undoubtedly go beyond all expectations. Whoever is not convinced of this does not have faith in the prodigious power of Christ’s word.

The second parable (vv. 30-32) is also taken from life experience in the fields. Every day the farmer sees tiny seeds disappearing into the earth and being reborn to become stems, shrubs, and even large trees. This astonishing contrast between the smallness of the beginnings and the greatness of the results is what Jesus intends to highlight with the parable of the mustard seed, which, according to popular opinion, was the smallest of all seeds. The wonder came from the observation that, from an almost invisible grain, a shrub sprouted and grew, in a single season, that even today along the shores of the Lake of Galilee can reach three meters in height.

With this parable, Jesus did not intend to make prophecies about the future triumphs of the Church, which, born of a few poor fishermen, would become a solid, influential institution, capable of inspiring fear and respect even in the holders of political power. The development of the kingdom of God cannot be assessed with statistics because, as Luke relates, it cannot be seen or quantified; it is found in the depths of every person (Lk 17:21).

The seed of the kingdom of God always remains small and without the glory of this world; the effects it produces, however, exceed all expectations and, in the parable, are presented through images taken from the Old Testament. The luxuriant growth of the tree evokes the vitality of life, the fullness of success. Ezekiel compares Assyria, which had reached the height of its power, to a “cedar of Lebanon, beautiful in branches, thick in foliage, tall in the trunk; its top was in the clouds. It had surpassed in height all the trees of the fields”(Ezk 31:3-5). The shadow that defends against the sun’s burning rays is a metaphor for the protection offered by the kingdom of God to those who enter it (Ps 91:1).

The image of nesting birds is also frequently found in the Old Testament (Ezk 31:6); it depicts those who, having put their complete trust in God’s word, build their nests in the house of the Lord (Ps 84:4), that is, they set up their lives in harmony with Gospel values. They will experience bliss, peace, and the fullness of love, in the shelter of the shadow offered by the Most High (Ps 91:1).

The parable is an invitation to consider reality with God’s eyes. People value what is great and what appears; they judge the successes and failures of people according to the money they have accumulated, the position of power they have attained, their honorary titles, prestige, and notoriety. Jesus overturned the scale of values: “Whoever becomes small will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 18:4). Only the one who has made himself as small as a mustard seed will become “like a tree planted by the streams of water, which will bear fruit in its season and its leaves will never fall” (Ps 1:3).

The parable is meant to instill joy and optimism. One day it will appear to all the wonders worked by God through those who, like his Son, became humble and meek servants of all.

Of the entire Christian message, this is undoubtedly the most challenging part to assimilate, so it is not surprising that not everyone can understand it. For most, it remains an unresolved enigma, not because they do not understand its meaning, but because it is humanly absurd and inconceivable that by making oneself small, one can appear great before God.

The passage ends with a note by the evangelist: “In private, Jesus explained everything to his disciples” (v. 34). Reflection, silence, and prayer are necessary; time must be dedicated to dialogue with Christ; a suitable spiritual climate must be created if we are to receive, from the Spirit, the light necessary to assimilate and translate into life choices the message of this parable.

Upon awakening, we will look at the ripe ears – DOWNLOAD VERSION