11th Sunday 2015

In our Gospel according to  Mark 4:26-34, Jesus gave His listeners a description of the Kingdom of God using two parables.
In  the first parable where He talked about the Kingdom of God, He mentioned -"the harvest has come" and in the second -"the mustard seed becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."
In both parables, Jesus revealed to His listeners that with the dawning of the Kingdom of God, there comes happiness. In other words, God wills to share His happines with us His creatures. But this seems to be difficult for some of us to understand. If God wants us to be happy, then why is there suffering? Why is there sickness, death, famine, poverty, etc. in this world? How can there be happiness? My dear friends, with all these questions, happiness seems to be a mere impossibility. Instead of providing us some answers for all these questions, Jesus maintained to describe that there is happiness. First, this happiness does not happen abruptly or instantly. Then this happiness is imperceptible that it is something beyond what the senses can perceive.

First, happiness does not happen abruptly or instantly. This is indicated in the first parable when Jesus said, "the earth produces of itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear"  while in the second He said, "it is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth". With these descriptions, we get the impression that happiness happens through a gradual process. My dear friends, we believe that God being omnipotent can give us an instant solution by eradicating all of these problems once and for all. Yet our God prefers that things happen in His own time. It is therefore necessary for us to wait for God to address all our concerns while we continue praying to Him. This is what most sick people experience when they say "God, if you want me to be happy, heal me right now", healing does not take place immediately. For some, it takes years to be healed. They have to be patient as they gradually improving their health condition. We have to remember, happiness does not happen abruptly or instantly.

Now we go to the next character, happiness is imperceptible that it is something beyond what the senses can perceive. This is indicated in the first parable as Jesus said, "a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he knows not how", and in the second He said, "a mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up..." With these words, we get the impression that happiness somehow is uncapable of being perceived by the senses. This means my dear friends, that despite the many problems we see in this world, those problems cannot stop God in sharing us His happiness. There is happiness. But we have to go beyond our senses to discover it. We cannot rely on just what we see or hear or touch. We might not understand why certain painful event must happen to us but time will come for us to realize why it should happen. What matters on that day is that after all the sufferings, we can find happiess in the end. In short, despite the many discomfort and difficulties in life, God assures us that He shares His happiness with us.

To end, allow me to share my experience. In 1988, after I graduated from elementary, I entered the seminary to fulfill my only dream, that is to become a priest. But it was very difficult for me then to adjust myself in the seminary because it was my first time to sleep without my mother at my side. I also had the difficulty to follow our seminary schedules as well as to pass our subjects especially in Math, Latin and Spanish. I always got sick that I thought I could not make it anymore to become a priest. This situation went on until I was in the second year, when our priest-professor in Latin scolded me during our class with him because I was actually academically poor. He even warned me saying, "You better go home and plant camote." It was on that day that I prayed to God that at least I could finish my high school in the seminary and get out after our graduation. My dear friends, I do not know how and why but I stayed in the seminary after graduating from high school. Then after thirteen years in the seminary, I could not believe that I was ordained priest on September 19, 2001, which was also the birthday of the priest who scolded me when I was in High School. I admit my dear friends, he served as my model-priest while I was studying in the seminary. On that day, I experienced what happiness means. Happiness is a gift from God. It does not happen instantly. It is not always perceptible yet it exists. Happiness comes in God's time. Amen.