Pope's Intentions
Universal: Immigrants and refugees -- That immigrants and refugees may find welcome and respect in the countries to which they come.
Evangelization: Vocations -- That the personal encounter with Jesus may arouse in many young people the desire to offer their own lives in priesthood or consecrated life.
Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B
Commentary of the day
Saint Peter Chrysologus (c.406-450), Bishop of Ravenna, Doctor of the Church
Sermon 98, 1-2 ; CCL 24A, 602 (trans.©Friends of Henry Ashworth)
"But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants"
Brothers and sisters, you have heard today how the kingdom of heaven, for all its vastness, can be compared to a mustard seed... Is that the sum of believers' hopes? Is that what the faithful are longing for?... Is this the mystery no eye has seen, no ear heard, no human heart imagined; the mystery past telling that the Apostle Paul assures us God has prepared for all who love him? (1Cor 2,9). Let us not be too easily disappointed by our Lord's words. If we remember that "God's weakness is stronger than human strength, and God's foolishness wiser than human wisdom," (1Cor 1,25) we shall find that this smallest seed of God's creation is greater than the whole wide world.
It is up to us to sow this mustard seed in our minds and let it grow within us into a great tree of understanding (Gen 2,9) reaching up to heaven and elevating all our faculties, spreading out branches of knowledge...
Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden of the Virgin's womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living creature with which it comes in contact. As long as a mustard seed remains intact, its properties lie dormant; but when it is crushed they are exceedingly evident. So it was with Christ; he chose to have his body crushed, because he would not have his power concealed... Christ is king, because he is the source of all authority. Christ is the kingdom, because all the glory of his kingdom is within him.