Fr. Michael Williams

As Christians we pray every day, “Thy Kingdom come”. This petition to the Father is offered up by countless Christians daily. Think of how many times throughout history the petition, “Thy Kingdom come”, has been made.

But it is to be noted that the coming of God’s Kingdom into our world and its history, is a mysterious phenomena. This is why Jesus uses parables to tell us something about this coming Kingdom. They allow us to enter into the mystery that is the Kingdom of God, without exhausting it, because a mystery cannot be fully fathomed or understood, it can only be explored. Jesus uses parables to help explain to us “what the Kingdom of God is like”. Parables give insights into what God’s Kingdom is like.

In today’s gospel Jesus gives us two parables to explain to us something about the Kingdom of God. In the first parable Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like the man who “throws seed on the land…the seed sprouts and grows”. These small seeds then go on to produce a great harvest.

Jesus began His mission of inaugurating the Kingdom of God by using small and insignificant things. The twelve Apostles were unlearned and unrefined. Yet it was these that Jesus chose to proclaim ‘the Good News of the Kingdom’. St John Chrysostom says, ‘It was through the agency of uneducated men that the cross brought conviction, and drew the whole world to itself’. John Chrysostom goes on to say that the Kingdom of God ‘overran the whole world…and although countless people were trying to obliterate the name of the Crucified, the contrary happened. It flowered and grew larger’.

The Kingdom relies on the power of God which is always at work in the world. Joseph Stalin once contemptuously said of the Church, ‘how many armoured divisions does the Pope have’? Yet Joseph Stalin and his atheistic Soviet Union, which tried to destroy Christianity in Russia and Eastern Europe, are consigned to history. The Church is once again flourishing in Eastern Europe, with vocations increasing. The seeds which were hidden for so many years are now sprouting and growing producing a great harvest.

In the second parable in today’s gospel Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as being like “a mustard seed [which] grows into the biggest shrub of all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade”. This reminds me of the Church in Nigeria. I met two doctors from that country recently. They both told me how the Church in Nigeria is flourishing and growing. The Church in Nigeria began with a few simple men and women taking the Faith to the people there. Now the Church is flourishing.

Jesus describes the Kingdom of God as possessing a power that will always flourish and bear fruit. This power is often hidden away from sight, yet it is at work producing the harvest. Just as a seed, quietly and effectively, grows into a plant bearing fruit so it is with the Kingdom of God. We should always have great confidence in God’s power which is always at work in the world producing a harvest for God. And let us continually pray with confidence, “Thy Kingdom come”.