Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Luke 13,18-21

He went on to say, 'What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.' Again he said, 'What shall I compare the kingdom of God with? It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.'

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The two very brief parables are better understood if read in the context of the first Chirstian communities that were wondering whether it was truly possible to inaugurate the Kingdom of God only through meekness and words in a world that opposed so many resistances to the Gospel. In fact, we too wonder if the Gospel is too weak to change a world that, on the contrary, seems so much stronger. To these old and contemporary objections Jesus answers with two small parables: the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast and the dough. As we know the Kingdom of God is the heart of Jesus' preaching as the synoptic Gospels show to us. On the one hand there is this world submitted to Satan. On the other there is the new kingdom, God's one, that Jesus came to inaugurate on earth. And here is the meaning of the two parables. The kingdom that Jesus came to open begins not in a powerful or glamorous way, but like a small seed or a handful of yeast. Of course, it is important that the seed enter the soil and that the yeast be mixed with the dough. Luke underlines in the parable the idea of development, continuous growth. The seed - that is the Gospel preaching and the practice of love - will produce a great tree and the yeast will ferment the dough of society and of the world. Many people will be able to rest in the shade of the tree of love, and many people will be able to feed on the bread of mercy.