Daily Gospel Reflection – Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
October 31, 2023
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Lk 13:18-21
Jesus said, "What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
When it was fully grown, it became a large bush
and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches."
Again he said, "To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barro
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus says that the kingdom of God “is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”
What’s the kingdom of heaven? It is God’s way of ordering things. How often the Bible contrasts it to the “world,” which is the way of ordering things that is born of sin. When self-interest, rivalry, egotism, violence, and fear are fundamental, things will get ordered in a certain way—economically, politically, socially.
But the kingdom of God is the way of ordering things born of love—love for God and love for neighbor. Generosity, peace, nonviolence, and trust will give rise to a new way of ordering things. This is true of a family, a school, a parish, a community, a nation state.
Now how in the world does one get this project off the ground? As should be clear, this never happens all at once overnight. Rather, in small ways, people begin living according to the kingdom. And then, in God’s time, this new community begins to have a leavening effect on the wider society.
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