First Reading
Ezekiel 17:22-24
1. What are the similarities between the “tender shoot” in this parable and the mustard seed in the Gospel? In each case, “Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it, every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.” What do you think of when you read this? Can the insignificant turn into the most significant?
2. The tender shoot becomes a majestic cedar. In the Gospels, Jesus refers to the “least” becoming the “greatest” numerous times. How is Jesus’ own life an example of this? Can you think of others who followed or now follow this example?
Second Reading
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
1. “Walk by faith, and not by sight.” What does that mean to you? Why would we need the courage Paul mentions twice in this reading, in order to walk by faith? Were, Oscar Romero, Rutilio Grande, SJ, Dorothy Day, and the men who were beheaded by Isis walking by faith or sight?
2. Do you have confidence all the time, even when your spiritual weather is stormy? When Paul says “we are always courageous,” is it true? Are you courageous? Always? What helps when you are not?
Gospel
Mark 4:26-34
1. What is the farmer’s job in both of these parables? What is God’s job? Could you ask yourself the same two questions about your ministry? … about your job and God’s? Are your duties to start discussions or participate in programs against climate change and racial bias? Can you trust God to do God’s job? Does God use our small gifts (the smallest of seeds) to bring all creation into the kingdom of God (the largest of plants)?
2. According to Pope Francis, what happens to our (small, mustard seed-size) gifts when we trust God instead of ourselves?
If you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this sycamine tree: ‘Be rooted up, and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” … Thus, Jesus wishes to make it understood that faith, even if small, can have the power to uproot so much as a sycamine. And then to transplant it into the sea, which is something even more improbable: but nothing is impossible for those who have faith, because they do not rely on their own strengths but in God, who can do everything. … It is a faith that, in its humility, feels a great need of God and in its smallness surrenders itself, trusting fully in him.
Pope Francis
Oct 6 2019 Angelus
