topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)
03 October 10
 


 

I oftentimes find myself marveling at the lessons nature has to teach and especially what nature has to teach us about ourselves, that is, if we are open to learning that lesson, taking it to heart, and allowing it to change us.

In today’s gospel, Jesus speaks about a very tiny seed, the mustard seed, which has the potential to grow into a large bush.  Jesus likens the mustard seed to faith, telling his disciples that if they had faith only the size of a mustard seed, they could command a large mulberry tree to uproot itself and be planted in the sea.
 

 

To have that kind of faith would be quite impressive, no? 

Rather than focus upon the mustard seed as a way to understand Jesus’ teaching about faith, a homily I’m sure you have heard on many previous occasions, today I’d like to focus upon the mustard seed.  What does this tiny seed have to teach us about ourselves, that is, if we are willing to learn that lesson, take it to heart, and allow it to change us?

“In the beginning,” the Book of Genesis tells us, God instilled order into chaos and light into the darkness, thus creating the universe.  Everything God created was designed with a divine purpose or nature that, as all of those things worked in concert to fulfill their idiosyncratic purpose, the universe would be ordered rather than chaotic, as the light would continue to overpower the darkness.

That’s the image of the Garden of Eden, of course.  But, it’s also the image many of us hold in our hearts concerning what we’d like to experience in our marriages, in our homes, among our family members, as well as in our neighborhoods, schools, and workplaces.  It’s the image we use to evaluate how things are going in our lives (or not going in our lives, as the case may be).

What we oftentimes overlook is that, on the seventh day, as God looked back upon everything He created, God saw it all was very good.  And then, God rested, entrusting all of His earthly creation to human beings.  We bear the responsibility to maintain or instill order into the chaos and to bring light into the darkness of our lives and the world around us.  God has “tasked” us with keeping the forces of evil and darkness at bay.

Everything God created is good and its purpose is to contribute to the flourishing of good, as each and every thing God has created fulfills its created nature.

“In the beginning,” then, God created the mustard seed, ordering the biosphere in such a way that as everything in the biosphere fulfilled its created nature, in turn, the mustard seed would fulfill its created nature by growing into a large and healthy mustard bush that would produce new mustard seeds.  Then, these seeds would also grow into healthy mustard bushes which would also fulfill their created nature, in due course of time.

So, what about that created nature?  What exactly is a mustard seed and what does that seed flourish into?

An historian who lived in Rome during the time when Jesus was alive in Jerusalem, Pliny the Elder (c. 23-79 c.e.), described the properties of the mustard plant in his encyclopedia, “Natural History.”  He wrote: “With its pungent taste and fiery effect, mustard is extremely beneficial for health.  It grows entirely wild, although it is improved by being transplanted.  But, on the other hand, once the mustard seed has been sown, it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once” (19.170-171).

God has created the mustard seed to grow and to grow and to propagate and propagate, perhaps even to the point of growing out of control.  Thus, an untamed mustard bush presents an ever-present threat to other plants in a garden or grove once the mustard seed is introduced.

Yet, as Pliny the Elder also notes, a healthy mustard bush also the gift of seeds which, when cultivated, possess valuable medicinal and culinary properties.

So, what is hidden in that tiny seed that teaches us something else about its created nature?

As early as the 6th century b.c., the Greek scientist, Pythagoras, recognized the importance of mustard plasters as an antidote to scorpion bites. The common belief at the time was It takes one demon to drive another out," and mustard by its nature an irritant when it touches skin, would expel the poison.  A century following Pythagoras, Hippocrates prescribed a vast number of mustard-based remedies and antidotes.

In the Middle Ages, the wounds soldiers suffered in battle were treated by applying a layer of Maille mustard mixed with crayfish powder.  You may use Maille mustard in recipes or to add some zip to a sandwich.  But, Maille on a wound?  Bet you never heard of that!

Similarly, during the Italian Renaissance, when a poisonous concoction was considered the perfect method to murder anyone who stood in the way of love, money, or honor, mustard provide a great emetic (that is, an agent which induces vomiting). People also took mustard if they experienced stomach cramps after eating or drinking, not knowing for sure whether some malevolent person had added a few drops of poison to one’s meal or drink.

In the 17th century, Maille distributed mustard to the poor of Dijon to help protect them from chilblains.  I don’t know about the chilblains, but Dijon mustard is great for just about anything, even as a disinfectant!

During the great yellow fever epidemics along the banks of the Mississippi that caused thousands of deaths in 1878, mustard sold for the price of gold.  Shelves emptied in the supply stores since people believed that mustard offered protection against the disease.

In addition, mustard stimulates the appetite when served before a meal.  If used as a condiment in small quantities, mustard also acts as a digestive by promoting the secretion of gastric juices.  Mustard is believed to fight bronchitis, asthma, and pneumonia, guard against sore throats, relieve pain, and is a stimulant known to soothe tired feed.  Have you ever thought about soaking your feed in some warm mustard?

Mustard seeds can used as is or roasted in a skillet and be used as a condiment in a variety of recipes.  While dried mustard powder does not have a very strong flavor, mixing mustard with water initiates an enzymatic process that enhances the mustard’s pungency and heat.  To moderate its sharp flavor, add some very hot water or an acidic substance such as vinegar, which is how Maille’s mustard is made.

The oil contained in the mustard seed is edible.  But, today it is mostly used in making pharmaceutical products, soap, leather, and wool articles.

Mustard seeds are a cruciferous vegetable related to broccoli, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.  There are approximately forty different varieties of mustard plants, but three principal types are used to make mustard seeds: black mustard (Brassica nigra), white mustard (Brassica alba) and brown mustard (Brassica juncea).  Black mustard seeds have the most pungent taste, while white mustard seeds, which are actually yellow in color, are the most mild and are the ones used to make American yellow mustard.  Brown mustard, which is actually dark yellow in color, has a pungent acrid taste and is the type used to make Dijon mustard.

So, there you have it—and probably more of it than you could ever have wished.  Those are the properties of mustard.  The important point to contemplate today is that all of these properties emerge from a tiny mustard seed created by God and whose nature is to grow into a shrub of three or four feet in height.  At the same time, the mustard bush is programmed to grow out of control and to take over where it is not wanted, even attracting birds—like partridges—into cultivated areas where the birds also are not wanted.  (However, I have never heard of “partridges in a mustard tree.”)

The lesson?

Faith does not emerge from the seed of a mighty cedar of Lebanon.  Nor does faith emerge from the seed of a common weed, like the dreaded darnel about which Jesus also spoke once.  No, faith emerges from a tiny seed created by God whose nature is to grow into a pungent shrub which produces seeds bearing many salutary and positive health benefits.  The mustard seed can also be dangerous because God has created this shrub to take over and to dominate the places wherever a tiny mustard seed has been planted.

But, rather than consider the created nature of a mustard seed as a way to understand Jesus’ teaching about faith, what does this tiny seed have to teach us about ourselves, that is, if we are willing to learn that lesson, take it to heart, and allow it to change us?

“In the beginning,” the Book of Genesis teaches, God breathed into human creatures, endowing each with a created nature which differs from that of all other living beings.  That is, God created human beings in His image.  Despite what human beings sometimes may think, they are not God but an image of God.  That “breath of life” or tiny seed which makes human beings different from all other living beings, when it germinates and grows, does not turn into a mustard tree, a trout, or a mule.  No, as that tiny seed germinates into the image of God, we become the image of God alive and present in our world.

It is not simply the world’s leaders nor is it simply the mighty generals or the great statesmen whom God entrusts with being His image alive and present in our world.  No, God has created each of us in His image so that we will be God’s image alive and present in our world as we allow our created nature to introduce order into the chaos and light into the darkness, just as God did, “In the beginning.”

Change of this magnitude begins with small things, like the small seed of the breath of life that God has breathed into each and every one of us. Yes, that may appear insignificant and incapable of changing anything, yet Jesus teaches his disciples that they can be certain of the seed’s pervasive growth, just as the mustard seed becomes a shrub of three or four feet which grows out of control and takes over where it is not wanted.  As we fulfill our created nature and become God’s image alive in our world by allowing the image of God within to proliferate in abundance without, the order and light we bring into the world pose a mortal threat to all of those forces of chaos and darkness that want to be in control.

When we view Jesus’ teaching about the mustard seed not simply as a story about faith (which it is) but also as story about the created nature of the mustard seed, we can also contemplate better how the image of God which is our created nature has the power to take root in and to flourish among the people around us.  This is how God’s image becomes more predominant in the places where we are planted: as we bring order and light into our marriages and our families, into our homes and neighborhoods, as well as into our schools and workplaces.

However, too many of us are all too easily discouraged by the evil we see alive in the world.  But, that is to be blind to what God has accomplished through all of those who have allowed the small seed of God’s likeness to germinate and to grow into fruition in them and as they then introduced order and light into the chaos and darkness of their day.  Here in Philadelphia alone, consider the heroic example St. John Neumann and St. Elizabeth Seton, two different images of God who transformed the lives of other people as they came to see their created nature as God’s image and their responsibility to make it in schools, colleges, universities, hospitals, orphanages, job training institutes, hunger relief programs, literacy training, relief for the poor, prison ministries, and a host of other charitable services where today the image of God continues to be alive and at work transforming the lives of countless numbers of people.  Whatever the small and humble beginnings may have been, as they were in Bethlehem, each has grown far beyond what either St. John Neumann or St. Elizabeth Seton envisioned.  They were just doing their part or, as Jesus commanded in today’s gospel, “We are unprofitable servants; we have done what we were obliged to do.

Jesus tells teaches the parable of the mustard seed to encourage his disciples.  Jesus understood personally how easy it is to get discouraged when people of faith feel as if no matter how hard the try, they always seem to be crushed and crowded out by all of the chaos and darkness around them, just as Jesus was.

“In the beginning,” God intended it to be the other way around when God breathed the mustard-like tiny seed of His image into each of us.

 

 

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