Gospel

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.
Reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint Mark 4, 26-34

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.

The Word of the Lord.

Against a wall.

The kingdom of God is being established in me to the extent that I allow the grace of God to act in my soul. The “sleeping” in the Gospel is not so much about doing nothing as it is about allowing oneself to be acted upon. When I do not allow myself to be acted upon, I find myself up against a wall that I keep hitting until, with humility, I accept my hardness of heart and then overcome it with the strength of grace. Today we invoke the Full of Grace.

Applied to Married Life:

María José: Juan, sometimes I feel like I’m getting stuck on my spiritual path. I think it’s because I don’t submit to you. I rebel against that idea. Whereas you, you submit very often.
Juan: Well, I have other walls that I also struggle to overcome, María José, but it’s true that without mutual submission we cannot build a beautiful confluence between us.
María José: It’s just beyond my strength.
Juan: Of course, because it is the grace of God who does it. Ask for it and you will see how it helps you.
María José: Hey, what about that pimple that has come up on your back?
Juan: That is because the kingdom of God is already within me. Three weeks ago, I pulled a muscle and I was stiff. That was the stem. The following week, I grew a tuft of hair back there. That was the ear. And finally, the grain has come out!
María José: Haha, you’re such a joker, Nene.
Juan: So that you laugh better, Nena.

Mother,

In reality, everything revolves around being obedient to the action of grace, but that too is grace. Give us that grace, blessed Mother.