Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Why Does God Start Small?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, June 16, 2024

The parable of the mustard seed is one of Jesus’ most beloved parables. Speaking to the crowds, Jesus says, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants.” 

How does God tend to work? What does the building up of the Kingdom typically look like? We know that God is good. We know that God is the supreme good, summum bonum in Latin. We also know that God is the source and sustainer of all good. But going by what we know of God, it is crystal clear that God prefers good things to start small and by a very slow and gradual process, the project becomes great. God tends to begin from the very small and over time, it grows to the very great. God, it seems, tends to operate under the radar, on the edges of things, quietly, secretly and not drawing attention to himself. If you have doubt about the point I have made, answer these simple questions: How did God enter human history? Was it through a noisy, earthshaking, earth-shattering and disruptive manner? Not at all! God came quietly, sneaking as it were, behind enemy lines. And to make the story of his coming even more acute, more delicious, God did not first appear in Rome or in Athens. He did not appear in Babylon or in some great cultural center. God appeared in a rather dusty, simple outpost of the Roman empire called Bethlehem. In other words, in Jesus Christ, God comes not as a great conquering hero, or a great king or emperor, rather he came as a helpless baby and in the manner of someone who is sneaking behind enemy lines. 

Now, have you ever thought about how Christianity became a global religion and eventually influenced and evangelized many ancient cultures? The spread of Christianity started through unassuming men called Apostles and a handful of other disciples that followed Jesus and through a handful of people that listened to St. Paul in Philippi and Athens. When St. Paul preached in Athens and witnessed the stubborn fact of Jesus’ resurrection, many of his listeners laughed at him and walked away from him. But there was a small number of people who said, “We will like to hear you again on this matter” (Acts 17:32b). Those are the ancestors who entered into Europe with the good news of Jesus Christ, and from there to the rest of the world. How did the Redemptorist Order make its way to 82 countries and on all five continents? It began through a young man of 27 years, Alphonsus Liguori, who after having lost an important case, the first he had lost in eight years of practicing law, resolved to leave the law profession. After that, he went to a church to pray. As he prayed, he heard God’s voice urging and saying to him, “Leave the world, and give yourself to me.” How did the mighty Franciscan movement come to be? It began with one strange and mystical young man of 24 years old. He was praying in the tiny church in San Damiano when Jesus spoke to him from the crucifix saying, “Francis, rebuild my Church, which is falling into ruin.” For St. Alphonsus and St. Francis of Assisi, a small number of people joined them in their unusual project, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands. 

You might be tempted to say, “But God is great and omnipotent; so let him do great things on his own.” Yes, God can do anything without anyone. God could have rebuilt his Church miraculously, in an instant without St. Francis of Assisi, but God wanted him to get involved. God wants us to participate, through freedom, intelligence, and creativity, in what God is doing. And so he plants seeds, and he wants us to cultivate them. Similarly, God could have renewed the spiritual life of Christians in past centuries through a great infusion of grace, but he chose and inspired saints after saints to leave everything behind and get on with the task of renewing the Church. What we see over and over again in the Bible, in human history is that God delights in getting us involved in his projects and he rejoices in our cooperation and participation with him. This is the truth about the mustard seed and it is seen up and down the Christian centuries. God prefers to start small, he prefers to work under the radar, out of sight and out of mind and in a quiet way. And from these quiet beginnings, great things emerge. 

The central message for today is this: Don’t be afraid to do small things when prompted by God. You might feel that nothing you do might make a difference. You might think that against all the evil in the world, against all the injustice in the world, that there is nothing you could possibly do to make an appreciable difference. Your temptation might be that no one is paying attention to your project, which is, by the way, a good thing. Your worry might be that if people do notice, they might think you are a dreamer, or someone who is wasting his or her time, or a weird and crazy person. Don’t worry about it! Jesus too was accused of losing his mind (Mark 3:21). Totally disregard what people might think of you. If you feel the urge, the inspiration of God, sow the seed. Make the move. Do that good. Forgive that person. Give that love. Take that step. Do it even the smallest way and leave the rest to the mercy and providence of God. Check this out!When things start small, they can take off under the radar while you gain the strength, the knowledge, the wisdom and the seriousness vitally needed to make them great. If you want to do something great and you pray and God gives you massively what you want. Guess what? You might not be ready, and your project will fizzle out. So be patient and embrace the small divine invitations. 

God bless you!