Sparkles of Light (Mk 4:26-34)

27 January 2012, Friday, 3^rd Week of the Year

 GREAT THINGS BEGIN SMALL

Jesus said to the crowds: "This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come."

He said, "To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it?

It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade." With many such parables

he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

Mk 4:26-34

            Jesus preached two important things during his earthly life which has become central in our Christian faith.  This is the love of God the Father (Abba) and the Kingdom of God.  And today’s Gospel according to Mark is one of the Kingdom parables.  Jesus used the mustard seed in his parable to explain the Kingdom of God.

The mustard seed, being a very small seed, help us understand the larger point that Jesus is trying to make – that even a little bit of faith can work wonders. That it can grow, and strengthen, and make possible miracles.  But there is something else here that is easy to overlook, another message worth remembering.  It is a reminder to us of how much God treasures those things that are small.  Just like Jesus, came to us as one who was small Himself – a helpless baby, without a home, in a forgotten corner of an occupied country.  That is why he feels a special affinity for those things in this world that are weak, overlooked, neglected, dismissed, little.

            Who among you knows Angela Merici?  Angela was born in 21 March 1474 at Desenzano, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy.  She was left an orphan at the age of ten and together with her elder sister came to the home of her uncle at the neighbouring town of Salo where they led an angelic life. When her sister met with a sudden death, without being able to receive the last sacraments, young Angela was much distressed. She became a tertiary of St. Francis and greatly increased her prayers and mortifications for the repose of her sister's soul. In her anguish and pious simplicity she prayed God to reveal to her the condition of her deceased sister. It is said that by a vision she was satisfied her sister was in the company of the saints in heaven. 

When she was twenty years old, her uncle died, and she returned to her paternal home at Desenzano. Convinced that the great need of her times was a better instruction of young girls in the rudiments of the Christian religion, she converted her home into a school where at stated intervals she daily gathered all the little girls of Desenzano and taught them the elements of Christianity. It is related that one day, while in an ecstasy, she had a vision in which it was revealed to her that she was to found an association of virgins who were to devote their lives to the religious training of young girls. The school she had established at Desenzano soon bore abundant fruit, and she was invited to the neighbouring city, Brescia, to establish a similar school at that place. Angela gladly accepted the invitation.  Finally, on the 25th of November, 1535, Angela chose twelve virgins and laid the foundation of the order of the Ursulines in a small house near the Church of St. Afra in Brescia. Having been five years superior of the newly-founded order, she died.

St. Angela Merici, perhaps unknown to all of you, is the saint whom we also celebrate today.  Though what she has done was so little, it was big in sacrifice and faith, hence it bore fruit which consists of schools and the Ursuline Order.  Great things indeed begin with something small.  May our hearts and minds be drawn to those who are the smallest of all especially those who are often dishonored, and even discarded.  Those who are the size of a mustard seed.  Then we are building the Kingdom of God.

            St. Angela Merici, pray for us.