One of the images used today by Jesus to describe the kingdom is
the growth of a plant -- a progression from the seed to the plant, and
ultimately to the grain, fruit, or vegetable the plant supports.
Mk 4:26 ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on
the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout
and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the
head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once
he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
But in this imaging, it's hard to distinguish whether the image of
the kingdom is captured in one or ALL of the images: the Sower/Harvester, the
plant, and the sleeping and the rising.
Is the Sower/Harvester Jesus? God Creator/Father? Are you and I the
Sower/Harvester, in that we find ourselves as the hired hands called at
different times to a harvest,
MT 9:37 Then he said to
his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38
therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’
We are told that whoever the harvester is, he doesn't know how it
is that seed progresses from seed, to plant, and to yield.
Is the grain faithful souls ready for God?
I think that's hard to say from what the parable tells us.
One thing about grain is that beside the unknown marvel that brings about the
head or the kernel is the relatively certain technology that requires
almost all grains to be transformed somehow before it is useful. (Even corn has
to be at least boiled, steamed, or grilled before it can be consumed by humans.)
And if you think about it, grain growth is terribly inefficient.
Most of the plant that sustains growth is usually destroyed.
Think about the Church. If the Church is part of the plant, part of
the kingdom, what part is it?
If the Church is the dwelling place of faithful souls, most would
say the Church is the grain.
Then what does that imply? What is the destiny of faithful souls in
the kingdom if they are grain? Are they destined to be beaten, crushed, pulverized,
made into a dough or a whiskey mash so that something useful can come of them?
(You know, I'm just sayin'.)
Jn 12:24 Very truly, I
tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life
in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Does Paul in Second Corinthians speak only for the members of the
church or for the church itself, when he says today,
II Cor 5:6 So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord— 7
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Is the Church simply the grain and fruit that is gathered and
both practically and mystically transformed?
That is an important part of our image as a Eucharistic people. The
bread is a symbol of grain gathered and made into something new as bread, as
Christ brings us together to become One with Him as a new, nurturing, and
life-giving Creation. So too the wine, which in the Roman Missal, 3rd
edition, it says,
Blessed are You, Lord
God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received the wine we
offer you: fruit of the vine and work of human hands, it will become our
spiritual drink.
Grain and fruit that is gathered and transformed. Wonderful image!
But might it just be that at least as far as this pericope or
vignette from today's Gospel from Mark is concerned, the Church may not be the
"product" of the harvest but its sustenance. The Church,
rather, might be the stalk and the "head" protecting the grain
that gets the full brunt of the harvester's sickle and is left on the threshing
floor. As with our own bodies, I believe we become comfortable with the
creaturely form that is the Church, and that's when, sometimes, the tension
becomes the greatest for the Church.
We refer to the Church in our postcommunion prayer, Rite I, as
very members
incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company
of all faithful people; and are also heirs, through hope, of thy everlasting
kingdom.
That image, then creates a paradox, that is very difficult for
priests and other ministers to deal with. As ministers, we have a certain
degree of responsibility to be good stewards of the people and assets with
which we have been entrusted. Yet we find ourselves always needing to choose
between the stewardship of the bricks and mortar that comprise our parishes,
with the nagging admonition of Wm Temple, a mid-twentieth century Abp of
Canterbury, who said
The Church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those
who are not its members.
But our tendency is to want to look good, so that by looking good,
we may appear good and valuable to those around us, thus perpetuating our
Church community as "members incorporate in the mystical body of
(Jesus)" by attracting new members. Evangelization is not about
looking good. Evangelization is about proclaiming the good news to everyone,
even, and perhaps especially when because of that good news we may not look
good to the world around us, which doesn't deal well with complicated
stuff.
The good news to be proclaimed is that God glories in
contradictions. The good news to be proclaimed is that good things sometimes
happen in dangerous and courageous situations.
It was bad enough that Samuel went out in the face of Saul to find
a new king for the people of Israel. Samuel also had to contend with the
prejudices of Jesse, who was convinced that God would work through the
strongest, the smartest, and the bravest of his sons, and not through his
youngest and most naïve.
The good news for us is that God wills to work in the face of
our doubts and in spite of our "sure-knowledge."
While study and discernment are vital to the life of the Church,
study and discernment must not stand in the way of God's contradictions.
Like the sower, who
does not know precisely how seed sprouts and grows as it does, there are
ways and means God chooses to glorify himself and also build us up that defy
explanation or logic. Only then will be able to fully discern the challenge of
our time and stewardship -- that we can see the perils all around us, close our
eyes, and walk by faith.
