Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
A family invited me to bless their home. Barely unpacked, they had already hung the stairwell wall with a gallery of family photos.
The father of the family proudly showed me an old black and white photo. He pointed at his own father who in the photo was only a young boy.
“My father had no shoes,” he told me. “None of the eight children had shoes.” Looking closely at the photo of another generation, I saw that he was right. None of the children had shoes.
A generation later, his family had grown from their humble roots in Puerto Rico. They had two children, a house, and two cars. They all had shoes. They were living the American dream.
You parents have a dream for your children. You work hard so that your children have a better life than you have: better education, better opportunity, better health. You worry and pray so that your children have fewer regrets and less suffering. More shoes.
God has a dream for his children. His dream is not called the American Dream. Jesus called God’s dream the Kingdom of God.
“The Kingdom of God,” he began, “is like… a mustard seed!”
Jesus could have compared the Kingdom of God to a cedar tree. Everyone knew that cedar timber made boats and buildings. Cedar resin was used for embalming and perfume. The cedar tree was a much nobler choice than a mustard seed.
The mustard bush is an herb. When I visited the Holy Land, I saw the mustard bush growing wild and leggy like a common weed along the side of the road. Cultivated, its seeds are used for mustard oil. It produces a large number of small yellow flowers.
Saying that the Kingdom of God was like a mustard seed is as if Jesus walked around Longwood teaching, “The Kingdom of God is not like a royal palm tree. It’s more like a saw palmetto.”
Instead of a tree with a smooth trunk like a marble column climbing to lush crown of palm leaves, the Kingdom of God is more like a low-lying scraggly palm frond.
In other words, it is so commonplace that you don’t even notice it. It grows everywhere.
Wouldn’t it be something if the Kingdom of God was as commonplace as the saw palmetto?
God dreams that his Kingdom is exactly that. Not spectacular and otherworldly, the Kingdom of God is meant to thrive in our schools and families as simply and strongly as a mustard bush or a saw palmetto. God desires to reign in our businesses and politics.
Years ago, a certain pastor had a dream. He dreamed that his four little children would one day live in a nation where they would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. He dreamed that little black boys and black girls would be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
When Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached, “I have a dream,” he was doing what the Church has done throughout the ages--making known the kingdom of God. In our own age, we speak up for God’s dream when we say, “Imagine!”
• Imagine our society free from the evil of abortion, and abortion is no longer the number one cause of death in our country, greater than COVID-19, heart attacks, cancer.
• Imagine a path to citizenship for undocumented people, giving them an opportunity to become full members of our society and uniting families.
• Imagine religious freedom not only that of private thought or worship. It is the liberty to live, both privately and publicly, according to the ethical principles resulting from found truth.
Imagine God’s dream come true in our families and schools, in our business and politics, as simple and strong and abundant as a saw palmetto.
God does more than dream. He makes the kingdom come. Next Sunday, we hear in the gospel reading how Jesus calms the storm at sea and saves disciples from drowning. In two weeks, Jesus heals the woman afflicted for 12 years with a hemorrhage. He raises to life the dead daughter of the Jairus, the synagogue official.
Through his cross and resurrection, through his body and blood, Christ takes away the sins of the world. He makes the kingdom come.
Like the humble yet pervasive saw palmetto, may his kingdom come, his will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
In Christ,
Father David