20261027 Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time

(Eph 5:21-33; Lk 13:18-21): May Today Become a Mustard Seed and Yeast Written into a Beautiful Diary As one day draws to a close and another begins, there is a quiet excitement: what will be written on the pages of this new life unfolding before us? And when the day grows late again, we look back over the memories engraved on our souls today. That record is nothing other than the thoughts that rose in our souls and hearts, set down in words. It holds the expression‎ or gesture that flickered across a face we met, the atmosphere of a room we shared with someone, and the work accomplished through struggle and decision. Everything is kept there. Our lives are not made in one decisive moment. They become a story that grows richer and deeper with the passing of time and the depth of our relationships. That is why the small, seemingly insignificant things of this moment, the encounters that seem only to pass us by, the knowledge and experience we gather as we dream and strive, and every moment in which we have colored one another’s souls, are so very precious. A warm memory from one moment often becomes hope for the future. I must confess that, nearly forty years ago, before I came to dwell once more in this place, a memory that planted warmth in my soul was part of what has led me to where I am today. There was a priest, now advanced in years, who was then a young associate pastor. One day I had struggled terribly while serving as an altar boy at Mass, and he came into the sacristy afterward. He said to me, “Be a warm priest who embraces the souls of others deeply! You will be.” His words comforted me so deeply that I wept, and they remain written in my childhood diary. I am told that this story was recently shared with a priest who came to serve as pastor of a parish near my aunt’s home. In today’s Gospel, the Lord says: “[The kingdom of God] 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.” (Lk 13:19-21) A sincere word of comfort or encouragement may be as small as a mustard seed at the time. But when that seed is planted in a soul, it can grow into a tree that holds God’s word and love, a tree where those who come hungry and thirsty may find shelter. And just as the feeling and the prayer of gratitude from that day were as small as a pinch of yeast, may they rise until the whole batch is leavened. May hope become real, and may one life become another’s dream, so that it can be told that the kingdom of heaven is here among us. This is my prayer. In the Letter to the Ephesians, Saint Paul exhorts us: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph 5:21) And he continues: “For no one ever hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” (Eph 5:29-30) With this heart, he urges husbands and wives to be subordinate to one another, to love one another, and to cherish one another with all their heart and soul. The foundation of all human relationships and all the affairs of the world begins in the family. Not in a single moment, but through the words their voices carry, the look in their eyes, their gestures, and the very air filled with feeling and warmth, husband and wife sincerely honor and love one another as they would Christ the Lord. This is naturally planted in their children’s souls like a mustard seed and dissolves into them like yeast. We cannot even imagine what the Lord may entrust to the future of children who grow up this way. Moreover, the example of love shown by such spiritually mature and compassionate people blends naturally into the lives of those around them. It awakens in others a longing for love and transforms the surroundings into a holy and beautiful fragrance. A few verses earlier, Saint Paul explains why we are invited: “that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph 5:27) For each one of us gathered here is a temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells, and the relationships in which we are joined together are the most blessed gift for experiencing the kingdom of the living God. Through this Mass, may the clear air of the forest of relationships we are cultivating be added to the beautiful diary of our lives. And may the fragrance of that love spread, so that this world too may return once more to what it was always meant to be. Amen.