top of page

11th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Ages 3-6): Marvellous Growth

Writer's picture: thebetterpartthebetterpart

(Adults, you could begin by reading the Gospel aloud to the child. Alternatively, you could read the first paragraph of the reflection to the child, then read the Gospel, and then continue with the reflection.)



After so many feast days, this Sunday we finally return to the season of "Ordinary Time." "Ordinary" is a fancy way of saying that we count the Sundays with numbers! This Sunday is the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time; eleven is all of our fingers on both hands and one big toe, too! Sometimes we call Ordinary Time, "Growing Time." The colour for this season is green, and we often hear about a marvellous growth, like in the Gospel for this Sunday.


Jesus says,

“With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?

Aha! Jesus is going to tell us a parable. He wants so much for us to know about the Kingdom of God that he gives us little mysteries for us to think about. The more we think about the parable, the closer we come to the mystery of the Kingdom of God.

It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

There it is, the whole mystery. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. What is so special about a mustard seed?


Jesus says it,

is the smallest

The smallest? Can small be special?


Here is a mustard seed from Israel on my finger:

It really is tiny, isn't it?


How can something that small grow? It seems too small to do anything. It can hardly be important. If we drop it, how would we ever find it? It would be impossible.


But Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like this impossibly small mustard seed.


What does the mustard seed do?


Jesus says,

it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs

Whoa. The smallest becomes the greatest? How can this be?


It is hard to imagine that this tiny little seed can become something so great. It must take a HUGE amount of energy for that seed to grow. And it doesn't just grow, though, does it? It has to change, too. It has to change from a tiny little round thing into a great shrub with branches sticking out all over where birds make their nests! Growing and changing--how can it do that when it is so small? Where does it get that incredible amount of energy? Who gives the mustard seed the power it needs to grow?


Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like this. Does anything else start so impossibly small and become something so incredibly great? If we look around us, can we find that marvellous energy causing the tiny to grow and change? We cannot see it, can we? We cannot actually watch something or somebody grow. Small things are just small...until one day, they're not! And then, we know who has been at work while we were not watching. I wonder if we can be on the lookout for the Kingdom of God.

This is what the Kingdom of God is like. It starts small. With a marvellous strength, it grows. It changes. One day, it becomes so great.


Thinking about the Mustard Seed, we have drawn closer to the mystery of the Kingdom of God. We know something now about that mustard seed, so terribly small that no one should notice it. But we know that Someone does notice it. Someone fills it with a marvellous power to grow and become something so great. Someone thinks it is just perfect for the Kingdom of God.

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page