Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Praise be Jesus Christ.
In this 24th Sunday after Pentecost, we hear our Lord compare the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed and to leaven.
Now, what is our Lord talking about when he speaks of the kingdom of heaven?
He's talking about two things.
He's talking about the church and also his own teaching, the word of God.
The gospel, the doctrine of Christ.
First of all, the church, he compares to the mustard seed.
Now, the mustard seed, being very small in Palestine, grows quickly into a large, broad tree in which the birds can build their nests.
And so, the same way it was with the church.
At the beginning, very small.
But it grew.
Very quickly.
And became enormous, spreading everywhere.
So that countless souls could find peace and protection under its branches.
Our Lord then compares his own teaching to leaven.
Now, leaven, which quickly penetrates the flour and makes it bread that is fit for eating and nourishment.
So, the word of Christ quickly penetrates.
So, the word of Christ quickly penetrates.
Penetrated throughout the known world and penetrated into the minds and hearts of believers.
That is, all of those who hungered for the truth.
Those who hungered for the truth were then fed to satisfaction on the doctrine of Christ.
And continued to nourish themselves on this bread, the teaching of Christ.
So, we can ask.
We can ask.
We can ask ourselves, precisely, why did the church grow so rapidly at the beginning?
Why was the church able to spread so quickly throughout the known world?
Well, for two reasons.
On one part, there was the work of God.
And on the other part, there was the work of man.
First of all, with regard to the work of God in spreading the church.
We remember the last line, the very last line, in St. Mark's Gospel.
It says that,
Our Lord confirmed their word, confirmed the words of the apostles, with the signs that followed.
That is, God worked miracles to confirm the truth of the words of the apostles.
To confirm the truth of the Christian religion.
Okay?
And people being impressed with miracles, that is, miracles tend to leave a big impression.
They were then converted.
But there was also the work done by man.
That is, those who believed, those who accepted the teaching of Christ and put it into practice in their lives.
That is, they had courageous faith.
And they had pure faith.
And they had moral lives.
And so, their living faith, and the example that they gave to others, to unbelievers, pagans, in the Roman world,
also left a big impression.
By their example, they converted others who were of goodwill.
And who were disposed to accepting the truth, and also to living according to the truth.
And this is precisely what St. Paul praises the Thessalonians for, in the epistle that we read in the Mass today.
St. Paul says this to the Thessalonians,
And you became followers of us, and of the Lord, receiving the word and much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost,
so that you were made a pattern to all that believe, in Macedonia and in Achaia.
For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and in Achaia,
but also in every place your faith, which is towards God, is gone forth,
so that we need not speak anything.
We need not to speak anything.
See, St. Paul says that their faith was so great, they were made a pattern to all that believe.
Their courageous faith.
Their pure, moral lives became a pattern for all other believers.
So much so, that St. Paul is saying I and my companions, we did not have to preach anymore.
Because of your faith, and your example, we didn't even have to preach.
You were converting so many people.
Your faith became known everywhere.
And so, we see,
at least one of these two things present today.
That is, God is still doing his part.
We still have miracles, which are accessible to all of those of goodwill.
We think about the public miracle of Fatima, the miracle of the Sun.
Witnessed by 70,000 people, recorded in newspapers, secular newspapers.
We think about the miracles,
Miracles in the life of Padre Pio, who died only 41 years ago.
We think about the incorrupt bodies of the saints, which is visible to all still today.
St. Catherine Laboure, St. Bernadette Soubirous, the Eucharistic miracles, the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano.
So we see that God is still doing his part, still working miracles.
Now, what about man's part?
That is, Christians having a courageous faith and pure moral lives.
You know, we look at the church in America, and it isn't exactly spreading at an enormous rate.
It isn't exactly multiplying at the rate that we see in those first centuries.
Instead, what we see,
is that churches are, in fact, closing.
We have the opposite effect.
And so, let's look.
Where is courageous faith of Christians?
Do we have courageous faith, or do we have, today, a cowardly faith?
A faith that is afraid or intimidated to professing those hard truths.
Do we have pure moral lives?
Or do the lives of Christians pretty much reflect the lives of those who are unbelievers?
We think about contraception, the wide acceptance of contraception among Christians.
Never mind unbelievers, among Christians.
So again, here we see that, in fact, we are not doing our part.
We are not doing our part.
And so, each of us, we need to look at ourselves individually.
Okay, never mind the church at large, Christians at large.
Let's look at ourselves.
Are we doing our part?
Is my faith courageous?
Am I living a pure moral life?
A life in accordance with the faith that I profess?
And so, today, let's pray to God for a greater expansion of the church.
Would that the church could expand at the rate it did in those first centuries.
And let's also resolve to do our part, that is, to live with a more courageous faith,
and to live holier lives, pure moral lives.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
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Amen.
Exactly!
Yes!
Bravo!
publi Vai!