Daily Gospel Reflection – Memorial of saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Bishop Robert Barron
July 30, 2023
Memorial of saint Ignatius of Loyola, Priest
Gospel: Mt 13:31-35
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and //the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches."
He spoke to them another parable.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus describes the transforming power of the kingdom of God by comparing it to a mustard seed and yeast. The Church is the Body of Jesus, the living organism that makes present Christ’s mind and will in the world. It is his love made flesh throughout the ages, his hands and feet and eyes and heart.
We are all, through Baptism, members of that Body, hence organically related to him and to each other. Our purpose is his purpose: to carry the nonviolent and forgiving love of God to a hungry world, to go to the darkest places in search of sinners, to be both judge and bearer of salvation.
The Church’s responsibility is not so much to make itself accessible to the world but rather to transform the world. It is the mustard seed, the leaven. In Augustine’s terms, it is the City of God making its way within the City of Man.When we are most authentically ourselves, embodying the spirit of Jesus—or better, being his Body—we are most compelling and convincing. When we make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ, we exercise our mission properly.
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