Our Lord speaks of the mustard seed, that is the smallest of all seeds, and yet grows
into the largest of bushes in which the birds of the sky build their nests.
He is speaking to them in this mysterious form of which the evangelist, St. Matthew,
speaks at the very end when he says, all these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables to fulfill what had been said by the prophet.
I will open my mouth in parables.
I will announce what was lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
And elsewhere, we're told by the evangelist that he did that so that those who were seeking
would not understand and those who were hearing would not perceive, not meaning that our Lord
didn't want them to get the point.
It was that these things had to be expressed in mysterious ways because they were the objects
of faith.
In other words, Jesus was God who was revealing the truth that would set us free, that would
save us.
And the only way to get at the heart of it, the only way to understand anything at all
was to humble oneself.
So at the very first instant that we see and hear Jesus, he is asking us to humble ourselves,
to bow before the mystery, and to trust him, to realize that he is the source.
He is the source.
That without him, we can do nothing, and that it's absolutely essential that we come
to him as beggars and as people in need and open ourselves up to his truth and to his
influence.
And in the act of humility, everything does open up.
Everything is made clear.
This particular parable that our Lord tells today is really about this fact that unless
we humble ourselves.
before the mystery, nothing happens.
And yet, if we do humble ourselves before the mystery, then everything opens up because
the faith is a small thing.
When we see it, we don't understand it initially, and it doesn't perhaps, for the worldly-minded,
it doesn't make a lot of sense because it operates on a different plane.
And for people who are in love with the things of this world,
it doesn't answer their questions immediately, and so it seems like a very small thing that
won't do very much.
And yet, that's the challenge for us to come in front of the word of God and recognize
it for what it is on God's terms.
We have to trust the Lord that he knows what he's doing.
But if we do humble ourselves before the mystery, then it becomes, the faith becomes the answer,
of course, to everything.
Everything is resolved in the following of Christ, so much so that our Lord will say
to us, seek you first the kingdom of God, and then everything else will be added to
you.
So today, as we celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, the Mass, which is really the mystery of faith,
we know that what we receive in the truth that comes from Christ and his church is the
Holy Sacrifice.
It is really like that yeast which is mixed into the three measures of flour until it
has leavened the whole batch.
It's a tiny thing, and yet it's worked into our lives in such a way that it answers our
questions.
Our Blessed Mother is the woman who makes the bread.
She is the one who bakes the bread.
She is the one who has that yeast of faith that she wishes to work into our hearts and
into our minds.
If there are areas in our life where we don't have answers, if sometimes we're questioning
God about the way our life is going, if sometimes even we have a difficulty with the faith,
are tempted to doubt, then we need to turn to the Blessed Mother and ask her for the
grace of humility.
Because where we need it more than anywhere else is in our minds.
Where people go astray from God is when they cling to their opinions, cling to their own
will, cling to the things that they think are precious.
When God thinks they are not, it's in our minds that we need to be mortified more than
anywhere else.
And that is what faith is for.
And so we ask the Blessed Mother to help us make that fundamental and most basic act of
humility, which is the act of faith that opens up to us the vistas of heaven and all the
truth of God.
And I truly believe it.
God bless you.
Transcription by ESO. Translation by —