Year 37 No.
66 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B) — Green
Scatter
God’s Seeds
Fr. Paul J. Marquez, SSP
I n the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus
teaches us to ask the heavenly
Father that his kingdom may
come on earth. Jesus himself
already inaugurated this coming
when he lived and worked
around first-century Palestine.
We can all ask ourselves: what
happened after the inauguration?
Did God’s kingdom stall along
the way? When confronted with
natural catastrophes and man-
made tragedies, we sometimes
become impatient and turn
skeptical.
The Apostle Paul in today’s
Second Reading is also beset by
impatience. He eagerly awaits
the second coming of Christ;
but even as Paul remains in his
own body, he continues to fulfill
his mission. Later, he will leave
behind not only a remarkable
legacy of accomplishments, but
his entire life becomes a most
valuable fruit: “For me to live is
Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil
1:21).
Ezekiel is a messenger of
hope to his fellow Jews who,
like him, were exiled to
Babylon. On his sixth year as a
slave, the 30-year-old Ezekiel is
called by God to prophesy to his
own people who experienced a
national disgrace. The remaining
Jews who lived in Jerusalem
were captured and brought as
slaves to Babylon. With this
second wave of Jewish exiles,
Israel as a geo-political entity
has practically become non-
existent.
Through Ezekiel, God speaks
a message of hope to the exiles.
A tender shoot, taken from the
crest of the cedar tree, will
be planted on the mountain
heights of Israel. This shoot
will grow into a large tree,
reminiscent of the glorious
reign of king David. The cedar
symbolizes Israel’s restored
greatness, while the image of
birds perched on its strong
branches heralds that nation’s
restoration as the world’s most
important kingdom.
The full meaning of Ezekiel’s
prophecy will only come to
light by Jesus’ own parables in
today’s Gospel. The prophecy
does not point toward Israel
alone but ultimately refers to
God’s universal kingdom. Jesus
cites two parables to describe
the coming of God’s kingdom,
using a tiny seed as a common
June 16, 2024
image for both stories. Every
seed has its own life-cycle,
and transforms itself from a
seed to a sprout to a shrub to a
tree, onward to fruitfulness and
majesty.
Jesus’ second parable
dovetails with the cedar tree
prophecy of Ezekiel in our First
Reading. Jesus compares the
coming of God’s kingdom to a
mustard seed, which, although
very small, can grow into a bush
and rise to about ten to twelve
feet tall. On its branches, Jesus
says, the birds of the sky shall
dwell.
Jesus already planted the
seeds of the heavenly kingdom.
The seeds have their own life
and power. They are also full of
potential, able to provide shade
and nourishment to the “birds of
the sky,” embracing all of God’s
people. Let us not be impatient
with the difficult challenges in
life, but serve instead as God’s
farmhands who scatter seeds of
God’s kingdom. He will take
care of the rest until the time
of harvest.