Homily For Friday of The Third Week in Ordinary Time Year C, 28th January, 2022. The Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas

 Homily For Friday of The Third Week in Ordinary Time Year C, 28th January, 2022. The Memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas

Readings: 2Sam. 11:1-4.5-10.13-17; Ps  51; Mark 4:26-34

Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.

LET THE WORD OF GOD GROW IN OUR HEARTS LIKE A GRAIN OF MUSTARD SEED

In the scriptures, using a simple story to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson has always been one of the characteristics of Jesus when addressing the people regarding things that are very important. By couching his teaching in parables, Jesus made certain points much clearer to his audience. This is evident in our Gospel passage today where he told us the parable of the mustard seed, using it to describe the nature of God’s kingdom which he came to establish in the hearts of humanity. 

Here, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed growing from the Word of God spoken to the hearts of his few disciples which will grow and spread to the hearts of all humanity. This analogy focuses on the size of the seed that grows to become a might tree that gives shelter and salvation to all.

More so, Jesus is not just speaking of the size of the mustard seed, but also the faith of the people as that of a mustard seed. Telling us that just as the mustard seed responded to the word of God and grows into a might tree, so will the faith of the people grow into great vessel through hearing and doing the Word of God and so build up the kingdom of God. 

Nevertheless, these two analogies of the mustard seed symbolize the humble beginnings of the Christian faith which is well watered by the Holy Spirit to grow and give life and hospitality to all the people of the world. Hence, in building the kingdom of God, we are  reminded that we can be tempted in different ways just like David in our first reading, who when tempted by the beauty of an innocent woman, failed to control himself and so fall into the sin of adultery which led him to commit another sin of murder as he tries to cover up his sins. This very single mistake caused great damage to the mission of David and in his household.  So we should learn from this costly mistake of David. We should not give in to temptations and lost of the eyes. Rather, we should learn to remain faithful until our souls are saved in our heavenly kingdom. 

Dear friends, we need to let our knowledge of God’s kingdom grow like that of mustard seed, knowing that in the world today we have different kinds of seeds. But the question remains, what kind of seeds are we embracing and watering in our lives today? Are we watering valuable mustard seeds of faith, love, holiness, hospitality, obedience, charity that will lead us to God’s kingdom? Or are we watering weeds that are distracting us from attaining heaven. We must stop watering such weeds, rather let us feed ourselves with valuable mustard seeds of virtues and values. 

For when we feed and water such values, we will grow stronger like the mustard tree where people may find solace and so build up God’s kingdom, just like St. Thomas Aquinas whose memorial we celebrate. For he was one of the famous theologians, who understood what it means to sow the seed of faith in people so as to build the kingdom of God. Thomas is remembered for his great work, the Summa Theologiae and many other contributions, writings and works which still influenced and inspired so many people. Thereby showing us the important of sowing seeds of faith through the Word of God in the life of people.

LET US PRAY: Heavenly Father, as you sow the seeds of your word in our hearts, give us through the intercession of St. Thomas Aquinas the grace to grow it into the mustard tree of faith, holiness and hospitality and by so doing build up your heavenly kingdom, we ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. Do have a fruitful day.