11th SUNDAY OT - JUNE 16, 2024 (Ezekiel 17: 22 - 24; Ps 92; 2 Cor 5: 6 - 10; Mark 4: 26 - 3

 In the Gospels Jesus is often addressed as “Rabbi” or “Teacher” because he took many opportunities to teach, often in parables to the crowds, and great crowd sat that, and often giving instructions to His disciples in private as today’s Gospel reports. A question arises: What was behind all this teaching about the Kingdom? I believe His purpose, His motive can be summed up in two words, “I thirst.”

 If you recall when Jesus was near death on the cross, He cried out, “I thirst” and sour wine mixed with myrrh was offered to Him. However, thereis much, much more to His thirst and it goes far beyond a sip of sour wine. His thirst is for you, for me, for all; His thirst is for our eternal salvation. His thirst is that we live in relationship with Him and through Him with the

Father and the Holy Spirit. His thirst is so great that it overshadows our lives here and now and for all eternity. There is no moment in which the Lord does not thirst for us individually or call us by name.

Jesus once proclaimed, “I can only do what I see the Father doing.” Therefore, Jesus’ thirst, His yearning reveals to us our Father’s yearning. To realize this, to recognize this, to respond to this Divine Yearning is what it means to be known as a Christian, as a Catholic. Surely, it is an overwhelming grace to know with certainty that my God yearns for me – my failings, my sins never defeat God though they may defeat us in our response or, at least diminish our response. Jesus taught, “Without Me you can do nothing.” Only by the Spirit’s grace can you, can I, can anyone live yearning for God, seeking His will, living faith to the full. We need strength, desire, steadfastness, commitment – will power is never enough. To yearn for God has to come from God; there is no other source.

In the Gospel we heard Jesus’ parable about the mustard seed - the smallest of seeds once sown which becomes the largest of plants. I believe there is something about the Holy Eucharist in this parable. The smallest of seeds, this mustard seed, has a spark of life within it and it needs its proper environment, good soil, rain and sunshine. The consecrated host, small in size of almost no nutritional value, has not a spark but rather the fullness of

life within it, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Him we do not see yet the Lord is truly present and yearns for His proper environment, the good soil of our hearts, our depths - we hold, touch the very Person of our Lord - we believe this because He Himself assured us.

The seed grows into a tree so that birds fill the branches and nest in its shade; in a way the tree welcomes them. The Holy Eucharist taken and consumed expands our faith, our hope, our charity - the Lord Jesus with the Father and the Holy Spirit dwell within us and we are moved to be receptive, welcoming of others through charity. The Lord yearns to give us Himself in the Holy Eucharist - we will hear His words at the Consecration of this Mass - “Take and eat”... “Take and drink”. We can imagine the Lord saying with passion,

“Please! Receive Me, receive My love for your present and your eternal life.”

Today, each of us can say and say with absolute certainty: “I saw, I held with faith, I consumed the Lord’s yearning for me.” May profound gratitude mark our lives!