WORDS OF THE HOLY FATHER
Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. It is a very small seed, yet it grows to become the greatest of all the plants in the garden: an unforeseeable, surprising growth. It is not easy for us to enter this logic of the unforeseeable nature of God and to accept it in our life. But today the Lord exhorts us to an attitude of faith which exceeds all our plans, our calculations, our predictions. God is always the God of surprises. The Lord always surprises us. It is an invitation to open ourselves more generously to God’s plans, both on the personal level and on that of the community. In our communities it is important to pay attention to the little and big occasions of goodness that the Lord offers us, allowing ourselves to engage in his dynamics of love, of welcoming and of mercy toward others.

The authenticity of the Church’s mission does not come through success nor through the gratification of the results, but by going forth with the courage of trust and the humility of abandonment to God. Going forth professing Jesus and with the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the awareness of being small and weak instruments which, in God’s hands and with his grace, can accomplish great deeds, advancing his Kingdom which is “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom 14:17).