For The Bulletin Of only activity required of the farmer is 13 June 2021 vigilant patience. In the dispossession that is his incarnation, even Jesus had to accept some unknowing, some surrender of events into His Father’s hands (Mark 13:32). Perhaps we have had the experience with children who have planted their seeds in the garden and, excited about the possibilities of the flowers or vegetables to come, must be dissuaded from regular and disastrous digging down into the earth to see how the growth is proceeding! The farmer must wait confidently on God’s good time and providence, and eventually the time of growth and the time of harvesting will THE ELEVENTH SUNDAY IN intersect. Once we have received the seed SUMMER’S ORDINARY TIME of God’s word in the soil of our heart, we must be ready for the dispossession, the From Father Robert gradual unfolding of the seed’s potential that Jesus’ parables are not nice entertaining will push into our consciousness and little stories. As Jesus proclaims in the first transform our lives, making us a plentiful words He speaks according to Mark (Mark harvest and enabling us to become 1:14-15), His mission is to announce the nourishment for others. Because the growth Good News of the kingdom, the reigning of the seed is God’s secret, it can often and transforming presence of God in His happen in what, to our limited human person and words, and call the people to perspective, are the most unlikely places: in faith and repentance. Like all the parables, the lives of the poor, the despised, the the two parables of green and growing persecuted. This was surely a great things we hear today are words of Jesus that consolation to Mark’s community, for this tease us into contemplating our own lives was the reality of their lives. It should give and our response to the kingdom. the same hope and confidence to us today in our personal, communal, or national In the first parable, Jesus compares the situations. What seems humanly growth of the kingdom to the seed that is insignificant, and even a failure, is planted by the farmer who then retires from transformed by God’s power, just as the the scene into the rhythm of his everyday seed of Jesus’ life fell into the ground of life. Day and night he wakes and sleeps, death to be transformed by His resurrection while the seed, once sown, has its own (John 12:24). This is the great potential for growth independent of the encouragement for disciples as we live farmer. The mystery of growth belongs to between the planting and harvesting into the the seed and the soil, to the gradual kingdom of God. “dispossession” of the hard little seed to the nourishing earth, and its consequent The parable of the mustard seed and its unhurried and gradual growth: first the surprising growth is also one of stalk, then the head, then the full grain. The encouragement for struggling communities 1 frustrated or despondent because of what In his second letter to the Corinthians, seems the small and insignificant growth of St. Paul tells the community, “we walk by the kingdom of God and its impact on the faith, not by sight.” What does this mean world around them. Jesus makes use of for your journey of faith? legitimate poetic license in exaggerating the size of the mustard seed (“the largest of In the gospel the mustard seed grows to plants”), in order to stress the extravagant become a plant that can shelter “the birds of and disproportionate growth of the kingdom. the sky.” How does our parish offer shelter That God is in all our beginnings and and safe haven for others? endings is the great and faithful hope of Jesus’ disciples. The mustard bush, we are What evidence do you see of the kingdom of reminded, does not exist only for itself, but God growing in our midst? it offers a welcoming refuge for the birds of the air who nest in its shade. So, the Christian community is to spread out its branches in welcome to others, especially to those who are enduring the heat of suffering, who are searching either physically or spiritually for some “shade” or sanctuary. We too often find it difficult to be at home and comfortable with mystery; there is still About Liturgy: Ordinary, Extraordinary the primeval temptation to be like gods, to This is the Sunday when, during the know everything to overreach our God- Presider’s greeting to the assembly or during given humanity. That we have Jesus’ word the homily, we are frequently “welcomed to “explain” to us the deeper meaning of back” to Ordinary Time. As mentioned on God’s action in our lives and our world, is Trinity Sunday, Ordinary Time actually the privilege of Jesus’ disciples. began two Sundays ago, even though the vestments were still white, even though we don’t actually hear the phrase “Sunday in Ordinary Time” until today. Along with this misplaced greeting, we will often hear as well about how it’s been months since green vestment have been worn on Sundays, and how after the pinnacle of the year (Easter) and the great feasts of Holy Trinity and Corpus Christi, we are now returning to the ordinary days of In both the first reading and the gospel, we the calendar, as if they are somehow are given an image of the small becoming lackluster and banal. Some overcorrect for great. Where have you seen this pattern in this by speaking about how the time isn’t your own life? ordinary at all but rather “extraordinary,” in that we will spend many weeks being trained by the scriptures in the practice of being a disciple of Jesus. 2 While that last part is true, utilizing the It is not the full vulnerability of lying down language of “ordinary” and “extraordinary” or the powerful stature of standing; it hovers in this way is a disservice. The periods of somewhere in between – not action, not rest the liturgical calendar known as Ordinary – yet it is calm, watchful, alert. If we let it, Time are called that because these Sundays it can become a posture of receptivity, of are counted, and for no other reason. openness, of a willingness to hear and You’ve likely heard of the ordinal numbers: understand. We spend much of the Liturgy first, second, third, and so on. It is because of the Word in this posture, listening to of these ordinal numbers we get, in English, Scripture, and that Scripture broken open in the name Ordinary Time. Further, to call a well-crafted homily. these days extraordinary is to use that word to mean “amazing” or “remarkable,” when, For the presider, though, we have already in the lingo of the church, extraordinary seen how the Presidential Chair is one of typically means “outside of the normal, dignity and presidential authority when it is usual, or prescribed” – for instance, used; for a bishop that cathedra is so “extraordinary ministers of Holy important that the building it occupies is Communion” are those people outside the named for it. Let us pray that our servant- normal, usual, prescribed ministers, those leaders are mindful that, when they too are who are ordained. called to hear and understand the words of Scripture and the needs of the flock they These coming weeks of Summer’s Ordinary shepherd. Time, while not Advent, Christmastide, Lent, or Eastertide, are no less vital to the life of the church and our prayer and formation. We should be careful, then, about how we use language to describe the passage of time and seasons in the Liturgical Year. Each week we are blessed by parishioner About Liturgy: Sitting – A Middle Posture volunteers who come on Saturday mornings Perhaps the most “ordinary” posture we to clean and prepare the church and humans have is sitting. Whether at a desk in bathrooms for our weekend services. Once a workplace or relaxing at home, eating a again, our thanks to Al Cosce, Reno and meal, watching a movie or a play in a Thelma Benasfre, Jun Bajet, Carole theater, sitting is perhaps the posture in Miller, Jean Rogers, Mency Osborne, which we spend most of our days. Rose Salamanca, and Steve Rojek. 3 Our Art & Environment Committee has once done an exceptional job of creating a There's a revolution beautiful and meaningful environment for Summer’s Ordinary Time with the artistic needed. Join it. fabrics, the Peace Lilies and Ficus Trees. 10 June 2021 Our thanks to Tom and Stevie Catchings, by Joan Chittister Leo and Minnie Rivera, Tony and Claudia Gumina, Pablo and Norma Villegas, Dorothy O’Connor, Theresa Nelms, Rich Confetti, and Don Benson. A discarded plastic bottle floats in the Anacostia River in April 2020, near Bladensburg, Maryland. (CNS/Chaz Muth) Journalism in the United States is more a drumbeat than a narration. Important stories come in one of two types: First, there are the ones that come and go, shock or entertain, surprise or delight us. Today we join Andrew and Allison Harris These are the quick ones, the ones we search in thanking God for their 40 Years of the headlines for day after day. Just to find Married life and love. They will receive the out what's going on. 40th Anniversary Blessing at the conclusion of this morning’s 8:00 a.m. Holy Eucharist. We share the cloudy details at suppertime. May God continue to bless you with the best We recount them at family picnics.