“Let them both grow till the harvest.”
Whenever I read the passage of Matthew 13:24-30, given for today's liturgy, I cannot but admire God's patience, and a divine logic that is way beyond ours. We have the awful tendency to wage war on war; we think we can use violence in order to deal with violence. War has something to do with old apocalyptic ideas: heaven should open and destroy everything that hinders us. God should be some kind of a superhero Rajnikanth or Rambo to avenge all the evil ones.
Jesus’ companions thought in those terms. When a town in Samaria didn’t wish to receive them, James and John asked Jesus, “Lord, do you want to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?” Jesus rebukes them. That isn’t his approach. He doesn’t believe in that type of force. He prefers another power, the fantastic power of a seed, the penetrating power of yeast, the gentle power of resurrection achieved at death and sacrifice. He prefers energies that change things from within. We often think that change can come from outside, that you can force it upon people as you can force it upon things. Jesus asks us to trust the soft powers in ourselves, in others, and in the world.
The kingdom of God begins with an inner potential that is given to everybody, something that will grow. If stimulated correctly and gently it will overgrow the weeds and all evil. Jesus has a bold gentleness that demands great courage but also great self-control and humility. In Jesus we see that God has a gentle confidence in our inborn goodness and possibilities. When we reflect on the humble yet marvellous life of St Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, we see God's gentle strength that bloomed in her to make her a Saint full of love and innocence in spite of all the terrible sufferings that she encountered. Her tomb at Bharananganam (ever since her death) pays homage to God's gentle powers through the innumerable miracles worked in the lives of so many pilgrims.
Let us trust those gentle powers in ourselves and in others. Let us stir them up in ourselves and others.
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