In recent weeks some politicians have revived the discussion about Australia becoming a republic. In recent weeks, as we can hear in the Gospel passages, our Blessed Lord has revived the message about the kingdom of heaven. The difference is that Jesus announces the reality which is already established in this world regardless of political, social or cultural environments. The Lord said: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a filed.” The filed is the world we live in even if the world with its political, social or cultural structures looks as dirty as the dirt under our feat. However that image doesn’t exhaust the whole mystery of the kingdom of heaven. That’s why the treasure hidden in the field Jesus presents with the dynamism of “a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.” If we go to the chapter 3 of St Matthew’s Gospel we discover that the first words of John the Baptist were: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In the following chapter we find the first words of Jesus marking the beginning of his public ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.” Exactly the same words because the kingdom of heaven is connected to Jesus Christ. St John the Baptist didn’t explain ideas or rules regarding the kingdom of heaven but he pointed to Jesus. Jesus is the realisation, inauguration and growth of the kingdom of heaven.
Let’s return to “the mustard seed which a man sowed in his field.” It is a powerful image of God the Father sowing his Eternal Word, his only Begotten Son, existing from eternity in the happiness of the Blessed Trinity, in the field of this world, in the field of the humanity. Jesus didn’t come as an alien but being fully divine he grew fully human from the day of the Annunciation. By his human growth Jesus was like a mustard tree which grows from a small seed not in isolation from the dirt but in inseparable connection to it.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! When we reflect on how life is connected to the dirt which is full of dead animals and plants we are drawn to contemplate a deeper mystery of the Divinity of the Son of God connected now to his humanity. However this message doesn’t exhaust the full mystery of the kingdom of heaven either. Last Sunday we heard from our Lord another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.” From that day of the Annunciation when the Divine Son began growing fully human he began leavening the human world. The human world was giving him humanity, which contains death; he was giving the human world the eternal life contained in his divinity. In terms of statistics it wasn’t spectacular but it was profound. It wasn’t conquering territories the way early kingdoms and states do but it was winning hearts. We can see it in Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachary. We can see it in John the Baptist. In Jesus they found the treasure and pearl worth selling everything else to get it.
I don’t know whether we will die in the Republic of Australia or in the Monarchy. However I do appreciate Jesus’ message about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom which draws its vitality from him “who grew up in front of us like a sapling, like a root in arid ground. A thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours sorrows he carried.” That’s why the kingdom of heaven continually grows in our midst because it is not defined by boundaries separating one country from another but it is defined by unity of ”people from every nation, race, tribe and language” who have found in Jesus Christ their treasure and precious pearl worth selling everything they have. It is a kingdom where the first law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” That’s the best law ever introduced on this planet as it leads to the change of heart. We believe that because “God loved us first.”
Let’s return to “the mustard seed which a man sowed in his field.” It is a powerful image of God the Father sowing his Eternal Word, his only Begotten Son, existing from eternity in the happiness of the Blessed Trinity, in the field of this world, in the field of the humanity. Jesus didn’t come as an alien but being fully divine he grew fully human from the day of the Annunciation. By his human growth Jesus was like a mustard tree which grows from a small seed not in isolation from the dirt but in inseparable connection to it.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! When we reflect on how life is connected to the dirt which is full of dead animals and plants we are drawn to contemplate a deeper mystery of the Divinity of the Son of God connected now to his humanity. However this message doesn’t exhaust the full mystery of the kingdom of heaven either. Last Sunday we heard from our Lord another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.” From that day of the Annunciation when the Divine Son began growing fully human he began leavening the human world. The human world was giving him humanity, which contains death; he was giving the human world the eternal life contained in his divinity. In terms of statistics it wasn’t spectacular but it was profound. It wasn’t conquering territories the way early kingdoms and states do but it was winning hearts. We can see it in Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zachary. We can see it in John the Baptist. In Jesus they found the treasure and pearl worth selling everything else to get it.
I don’t know whether we will die in the Republic of Australia or in the Monarchy. However I do appreciate Jesus’ message about the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom which draws its vitality from him “who grew up in front of us like a sapling, like a root in arid ground. A thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Ours were the sufferings he bore, ours sorrows he carried.” That’s why the kingdom of heaven continually grows in our midst because it is not defined by boundaries separating one country from another but it is defined by unity of ”people from every nation, race, tribe and language” who have found in Jesus Christ their treasure and precious pearl worth selling everything they have. It is a kingdom where the first law is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” That’s the best law ever introduced on this planet as it leads to the change of heart. We believe that because “God loved us first.”
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