SPIRITUAL FRUITFULNESS IN SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT THINGS
The Christian life is a life of spiritual growth, development, and fruitfulness in small and insignificant things through the action of the Holy Spirit. It is a life of grace, faith, and mercy. Though with our effort and cooperation with God´s grace through sacramental and prayerful life.
It is critical to note that nothing, absolutely nothing we do or realize is due to our merit. It is all favour or grace of God. When it comes to the Christian spiritual life, the principle there is that: Man is nothing, God is all.”
This life of grace is to individual Christians and the Church in general. Spiritual growth and fruitfulness pertain to the Christian Church and the Christian faithful. We are called to bear testimony to God in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
The life of God is active not only in the Church and Christian life but also in our human life. Therefore, we should bear fruits in abundance.
OUR THEME
In today’s readings draw our attention to the mysterious miracle of growth and fruitfulness in the Christian Church and life. The indisputable fact is that God is the author, source, and finisher of the Spiritual Life. Either, in the Church, or the Christian life, as well as the human life.
The readings focus on the origin, growth, and development of spiritual life in us (Kingdom of God: the Church) and our human lives (as Christians). It is birth with humble beginnings that slowly and graciously grow into a formidable entity.
Figuratively, the births, growth, and developments are slow, gracious, and mysterious, guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. The God who always acts in the lives of his people to bring about fruitfulness in our spiritual and human life.
FIRST READING: EZEKIEL 17:22-24
One fact is clear in the first reading of today, that is, it is the Lord who plants and grows the spiritual life that brings about spiritual fruitfulness in the Church or us. He is not an experimental God but a provisional God who raises the low and humbles the high. He makes the impossible possible through his divine will.
The prophecy of Ezekiel is also an assurance of the faithfulness of God to his words and promises. Hence, he declares “I the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.”
Conscious of the fact that life: both human and spiritual is a grace. The Psalmist in Psalm 92 invites us to be grateful to God: “Lord, it is good to give thanks to you”. Those who are planted in the Lord, his kindness, faithfulness, goodness, and graciousness will always flourish in their lives.
Therefore, for Ezekiel, spiritual growth and development come through a painful process of tearing and planting for abundant fruits and abundance to all. This was the prophet’s prophecy in Ezekiel 17:22-24.
SECOND READING: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10
Paul’s boundless confidence in God, despite setbacks and opposition, is one of those who live by faith. For Paul, spiritual and human life is full of difficulties and dilemmas. However, they are moments of growth and fruitfulness leading to a transformation in us, and Christian life and the Church.
These are essential thoughts of St Paul about the Christian spiritual life:
The spiritual life is live with the earthly body. Hence, the body cannot be viewed as something negative like how Greek and Roman thoughts despised the human body. For a Christian, the body is the “Temple of the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20) which should be used to serve and worship God.
Consequently, the body is a temporary dwelling place of the soul or spirit of God. It does not seek “Nirvana with the peace of extinction” “look for absorption in the divine” or look for the freedom of a disembodied spirit.”
The body is transformed into a glorious body: a spiritual body through salvation in the resurrection experience of Jesus Christ. Hence, in the spiritual body, God can be continuously served and adored in the heavenly places.
For all his yearning for the life to come, Paul does not despise this life. The reason is that even here and now we possess the Holy Spirit of God, and the Holy Spirit is the “arrabon.” The word, “arrabon” means, “a foretaste of what is to come.”
It is Paul’s conviction that already the Christian can enjoy the foretaste of the life everlasting. It is given to the Christian to be a citizen of two worlds. We believe the Church offers a foretaste of heaven when we join the Holy Spirit’s work of reconciliation in our broken and divided world.
Even when Paul was thinking of the life to come, he never forgot that we are on the way not only to glory but also to judgment. The note of sternness for Paul is that “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ.”
Additionally, our judgment will be based on what we have done with our body whether good or evil. The central message for all is to strive toward spiritual fruitfulness to be eternal with God.
Hence, St. Paul confirmed this process through acknowledgement that though our body undergoes death we are renewed in the spirit because we live by faith and not sight.
THE GOSPEL: MARK 4:26-34
The gospel image in Mark 4:26-34 presents the kingdom of God as a humble beginning of no significance but later grows, develops, matures, and fructifies in abundance for all. In a parable, Jesus notes the mysterious and gracious miracle of growth in life both spiritually and humanly as well as its fruitfulness.
The parable of today though short, is filled with unmistakably truths:
- It tells us of the helplessness of man. The farmer does not make the seed grow. It is a secret of life known to God alone who has the power to make things grow.
- Nature’s growth is often imperceptible, constant, and inevitable.
- There is a consummation that leads to the harvest of growth. This also entails patience, hope, and preparedness.
The Five lessons we learn from the parable of the Growing Seed today are:
1. The kingdom of God is all around us and is within us—small. Not small in size but small in its beginnings within us and within our communities.
2. The primary focus of Christ is the kingdom of God planted in us.
3. We should have a strong desire for the Kingdom of God. That is making the topmost priority of our lives.
4. It is God who gives the increase, and the growth and sustainability of the Kingdom in us. It is all grace.
5. God´s plan of salvation has different stages and it is slow, gradual, and steady to its fulfilment.
The gospel text tells us three fundamental things about the Christian life. First, it is an organic life of gradual and steady growth, not an artificial life that is mechanical. Second, it is a marathon in the sense it is a long-term race, not a sprint in the sense it is a short or breve race. Thirdly, it is a personal life. This means a personal commitment to God and others not a private life of secrecy or hidden
The central point of the gospel is that the Christian life is a life that begins from inside through faith in Jesus and begins to manifest itself outwardly through how we live and treat others or the things that we don’t do. It is a life that works itself out in us and through us. It is a spiritual life that springs up in us and not a religious life that we manifest externally.
In a nutshell, the human and spiritual life is God´s planted seed of grace in us. It has its birth, growth, and development sustained by God alone. However, we should be cooperative with God to bring about its fruitfulness. Like every human effort toward sustainable growth and development, spiritual fruitfulness requires the acquisition of knowledge and expertise direction.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
a. Are you conscious of life whether human, spiritual, or ecclesial life as a gift of grace from God?
b. Do you prioritize spiritual growth and renewal in your Christian faith and life?
c. Spiritual fruitfulness is the essence of our human existence: what are the obstacles or challenges in your life detaining you from attaining this divine purpose of God?
d. What collaborative effort do you make through prayer, spiritual knowledge, or spiritual direction to realize spiritual growth, development, and fruitfulness in your life?
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, the growth of the Kingdom of God in us is the work of the Holy Spirit. Help us be conscious of this and may we make a sincere and honest effort to humbly cooperate with the Spirit’s action in our lives to optimistically, graciously, and fruitfully continue our work of witnessing. Equally, may we continue to sow tiny seeds in the form of words of love, acts of encouragement, smiles, and deeds of charity, mercy, and forgiveness, Amen!
