30th Week in Ord. Time, Tuesday – 29th October 2019 — Gospel: Lk 13,18-21
Significant beginnings
In these two parables, we find the mention of a man and a woman. While in the parable of the mustard seed, it is a “man” who sows; in the parable of the yeast, it is a “woman” who mixes it. These parables reveal the deeper and inner dynamics of the beginnings of the kingdom of God. God’s work in this world is a mystery and great things have come from these small beginnings. It has been calculated that it takes 725 to 760 mustard seeds to make a gram, yet the mustard plant grows to a height of eight to nine feet. The mustard seed has the tremendous power within and the emphasis here is of its insignificant beginnings. In the parable of the yeast, the three measures of flour that are leavened are equivalent to fifty pounds of flour, enough to make bread for about one hundred fifty people. This parable reminds us of the power the leaven contained. Even the small beginnings are powerful enough to transform eventually the character of the larger quantity.
