Ordinary 11
Ordinary 11
by Paul O'Reilly, SJ

“What can we say the kingdom of God is like?... It is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.”

There is a great church historian {Owen Chadwick} who writes that the problem any historian of the Church faces is how to explain the scandal of the Church ­ by which he means, not any of the more recent scandals ­ but rather the fact that one man could so inspire a small group of mostly illiterate uneducated peasants from the poorest part of a small insignificant war-torn middle Eastern country into forming a Church which ­ two thousand and some years later ­ is still the largest and greatest human organisation that has ever been. Truly, the mustard seed that has become a mighty tree. And it continues to be the yeast which leavens the world with love and with justice. Without that leaven, Russia and Eastern Europe would still be Communist; South America would still be ruled by dictators and death squads. And all of us would still be living under the threat of nuclear annihilation.

Just one of the things that makes me believe that Jesus was exactly who he said He was ­ the only Begotten Son of God ­ is that he predicted exactly this when His Church was still only a mustard seed.

Some people imagine that the passage of two millenia since Jesus’ time has somehow diminished the first evangelical fervour of that mustard seed. I have to admit that, until I was myself sent on the missions, I would have been one of them. That was before I was sent to work in the Rupununi in South America ­ the Northern riverain of the Amazon ­ the largest area of unspoiled natural rain-forest remaining in the world. 95 years before, a young English Jesuit called Cuthbert Cary-Elwes came into a place he called Zariwa and founded the first Catholic Church in the Rupununi. From there he walked all through the Rupununi ­ two hundred miles south into Wai-Wai territory; two hundred and fifty north to Mount Roraima. He sowed the seed over a wide area ­ some forty-thousand square miles. His diaries show him to have been a man of faith and courage, but he also he had the gifts of music and a sense of humour. Wherever he went, the people loved him. For twelve years he sowed the seed, but then he became ill and was sent back to England and never allowed to return. And when he came to die, he still believed that his mission to the Rupununi had been a failure. He never saw the fruits of his work. Other men and womenSisters, priests, brothers and lay ministers watered the ground. But it is only God who gives the increase. And often, the one who sows the seed will never see the harvest.

When I arrived in the Rupununi, Cary Elwes original territory had been divided up into 3 enormous parishes. My parish alone had 53 Catholic communities ­ in the two years I was there, we set up two more. My parish now comprises around ten thousand people spread over twenty thousand square miles. Today the Church in the Rupununi has grown enormously from the single mustard seed of faith planted by Cuthbert Cary-Elwes almost a century ago in obedience to his lord and ours, Jesus Christ.

Let us pray that we may hold our calling to be faithful branches of His Tree and a true leaven for the World.

And let us stand and profess our Faith in the God who planted his Church like a mustard seed in the World.

Mount Street Jesuit Centre,
114 Mount Street,
London SW1K 3AH.
ENGLAND.
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