Today’s readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34.
References to the Kingdom of God are always politically subversive in tone for they articulate a manifesto of a kingdom that contrasts starkly with our petty earthly ones.
Take the irruption of the Kingdom of God in our world as described in the two parables Jesus recounts in today’s Gospel: The first tells of a man who plants a seed and then “goes to sleep”. The seed, “out of its own accord”, and without any further effort on the sower’s end, sprouts “immediately”. The various stages of the plant’s gradual but consistent growth from seed to harvest are vividly described. The second parable is of the mustard seed that, albeit small and almost insignificant, “becomes the largest of plants” with “large branches”.
In a cryptic reference to the downfall of the mighty kingdoms of Egypt and Babylon in today’s first reading, Ezekiel provides us with a visual cue of how this political agenda is realised. The Lord cuts off a tender shoot, symbolising Judah, and plants it on a high mountain. Just like the mustard seed, the shoot grows into a “majestic tree” and all kinds of birds find refuge in its branches. In a vein that finds echoes in Mary’s Magnificat there is a reversal of power when the Lord will “bring low the high tree” and “lift high the lowly tree”.
In both of today’s parables, no matter what might go wrong along the way, God is active, symbolised by abundant harvest. Trust in God always bears fruit.
Greg Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with reformed gangsters in Chicago, writes in his book Barking to the Choir that we need not search too much for the Kingdom of God: “It’s not around the corner. It is the corner.” In other words, there is nothing we can do to bring the Kingdom of God among us. We need only to acknowledge and welcome it.
The trap of “passive activism” is real. It is that kind of activism that is inspired not by setting our eyes on the Kingdom but by the passive and uncritical acceptance of myopic and self-serving ideologies that tick the boxes but leave no fruit.
In the Church this sometimes takes the form of religiously spinning the wheel of we-have-always-done-so, taking little time to pause and to ponder whether it is indeed a fertile ground for the Kingdom of God to flourish.
This is what prompted the German cardinal Reinhard Marx to hand in his resignation a few weeks ago. The Church became indeed a majestic kingdom, but, alas, it failed to be that large tree where the vulnerable found shelter in its branches.
It is no wonder, therefore, that Latina Catholic theologians like Ada María Isasi-Díaz speak instead of the ‘Kin-dom’ of God. By this they mean forging relationships of a different kind, where the other is seen not as a pawn, but as fellow kin, as sister and brother.
In contrast to passive activism, and by setting the sower of the seed as an exemplar, Jesus is challenging us to embody what we might call ‘active passivity’. This involves putting one’s trust completely in God, knowing that God is relentlessly at work. Those who do so “walk by faith, not by sight,” to quote St Paul in today’s second reading. They act out of docility to the spirit, actively making space for God to work.
In innumerable spheres of life, unassuming women and men patiently tend the seeds of God’s kingdom. They are marked by a resilience that shines forth especially in times of darkness. And if these women and men have been able to carve out spaces for the Kingdom of God to take root and flourish, it is because they have done so first in their heart.