30th Week, Tuesday, Oct 31
Romans 8:18-25 / Luke 13:18-21
Paul talks about future glory; Nothing matches the glory that awaits us.
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Do we really believe “that the sufferings of this life are nothing "compared with the glory to be revealed for us”? At nightfall, weeping enters in, but with the dawn, rejoicing.” Psalm 30:6
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Creation itself, says St. Paul, is to be liberated and redeemed together with the people living in it. As they become freer, people will use God’s creation and technical progress not to destroy but to build up and to serve, to liberate more and more everyone and everything.
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Whenever we sigh, we can be telling others a few things. We may be bored, as when we sigh in a long boring meeting; we may feel helpless in that we cannot change a situation and so we sigh; we may be frustrated that we cannot get something to work, and so we sigh. But sighing is not as serious as groaning. Groaning could mean that we are heavily burdened and undergoing pain and maybe even struggling to stay alive.
The 1st reading says that the entire creation has been groaning in one great act of giving birth. Not just creation but we too are groaning inwardly. The groaning here is the longing to be set free. But to be set free from what? It is to be set free from the clutches of the world that makes us want to think that all in life is just the here and now.
Yes, we are subjected to the worldly thinking that the temporary is the eternity. And people do succumb to the clutches of this worldly thinking and they live wildly with the pleasures and desires of life. But for us, we know that salvation lies in eternity. And St. Paul says at the beginning of the 1st reading that he considered the sufferings of this life can never be compared to the glory that is waiting for us in eternity.
Still, we need to struggle to believe in that salvation that God has promised those who remain faithful to him. May our faith be like the mustard seed and the yeast in the parables in the gospel. May our faith keep growing, despite the groaning, and one day reach the eternity of heaven.
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The kingdom of God must grow among us, like a seed growing into a tree, like flour transformed into bread by the yeast. But growth means change and going ahead, marching forward, and this cannot happen without change and saying goodbye to the past and even to the present, to walk forward in hope toward the future. This brings the pain of separation, of giving up something familiar, but also the joy of knowing that we are on the way with the Lord.
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Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed. Elsewhere he speaks of having faith ‘the size of a mustard seed’ which can move a mighty mountain. It is not size that is important but the unimaginable potential hidden within it. The value of something lies in its contents, beauty, rarity or use. A tiny pearl is more valuable than a big stone. Again, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a pinch of yeast. As long as it mixes well with flour and has a rising effect on the flour, the quantity of yeast does not matter. The Kingdom of God is also like the presence of fragrance in a flower which, though unseen, is experienced by all.
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Prayer
Lord our God, you call us away from the certainties of the familiar present on a pilgrimage with your Son toward a future of hope and joy even though we do not see it now. Do not allow us to remain installed in our own mediocrity. Let our farewell to the present not be marked with sadness. Fill us with trust in him who guides us to you, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
