BE AWAY FROM THE BODY…

Ezekiel 17:22-24

22 Thus says the Lord GOD: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain;
23 on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.
24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it.”

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

6 So we are always of good courage; we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord,
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight.
8 We are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.
9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.

Mark 4:26-34

26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, 27 and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how.
28 The earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” 
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
32 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.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.  

MEDITATION

EZEKIEL THE PROPHET use an image of a small stem, an aerial root of a plant situated at the top of a tall ceder tree that will be removed and placed in an elevated position, to describe the heralding of a prosperous new beginning for the people of Israel.This parable points to a kind of right-sizing of the people of God brought about by someone from within the community! 

St PAUL’S EPISTLE to the Corinth community raise an apparent concern that the people have become lackadaisy because their struggles and pain transitioned into a barrier in their relationship with the Lord. To put it another way, the peoples worship, prayer life, obedience and faith in Christ have waned and has been relegated because the people appears to have reached a state of hopelessness! 
Paul seeks to uplift and strengthen the peoples resolve by admonision that the their daily vicissitudes should not determine nor be the measure of their faith in Christ Jesus, because their judgement will be based on whether they have pleased God or sought to please their temporal needs!  

THE GOSPEL READING continue with the theme of the first two readings that calls all of us to grow in our faith and our relationship with Christ Jesus.

Catec 546 “Jesus’ invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching.Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything.Words are not enough, deeds are required.The parables are like mirrors for man: will he be hard soil or good earth for the word? What use has he made of the talents he has received? Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this world are secretly at the heart of the parables. One must enter the kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to “know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven”. For those who stay “outside”, everything remains enigmatic.”

Our participation in the feast of ‘The kingdom of God’ flows from our sacramental: worship; prayer life and active engagement in the life of the Church. The pandemic lockdown has resulted in a fearful unenthusiastic response from both the clergy and us the laity who have so to speak downed our spiritual tools but held on to our temporal material goals. We are called to relegate our temporal needs and restart and cultivate our faith and worship life so it may blossom again and produce new shoots of life! 

LET US PRAY: Psalms 92:2-3,13-15

2 to declare thy steadfast love in the morning, and thy faithfulness by night,
3 to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
13 They are planted in the house of the LORD, they flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They still bring forth fruit in old age, they are ever full of sap and green,
15 to show that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

Author. Henry R SYLVESTER Note: The daily scripture readings are taken from the Roman Missal which the Catholic Church use in the daily Celebration of the Holy Eucharist throughout the world.Some weekly readings may differ because of the celebration of local feast days.