Reflection on Mark 4:26-34

The Gospel of Mark is my favorite.  Yes, it is the shortest, but it reads like an action novel or a good TV program.    A common word in this Gospel is “immediately”. By one count, it is used 41 times by the Evangelist.  Jesus will complete some action and the Gospel says, “immediately” he moves onto something else.  It seems like he is just in a flurry of constant action. 

So, today’s Gospel is a little break from that. It seems almost like it shouldn’t belong in the Gospel of Mark.  The two parables in today’s Gospel gives many important lessons, but I only want to focus on two  today..  

The first is the results of our good deeds may take time to unfold.   The farmer spreads the seed. Day after day goes by and sometimes without the farmer realizing, the plant seemingly jumps to life.  I bet  this happens in  your life also but sometimes you don’t see it or appreciate it. We get caught up  in those day to day things and we just don’t focus. 

Sometimes we will not see the impact of our good deeds for years, or how far reaching they are. Let me give you a little example that happened to me recently.   As you may know, I am a college professor at Moravian University, here in Bethlehem and I am a CPA.   Years ago, one of my talented  students decided to go into accounting.  I helped her with her classes, right through graduate school and her certification.  The process took six years. She blossomed right under my nose.  This year I hired her to teach accounting at the college and she did a wonderful job. She  positively impacted the lives of her students. Now she is making a positive impact in the lives of others.  My good deeds took a long time to come to fruition, but it made a difference in her life. I impacted the life of one of my students.  She will impact the life of others with her teaching. I was privileged to see the results of my good works. 

Yet, sometimes we become discouraged because we don’t see immediate results from our good deeds. Or, we may not see the results of our actions for years to come.  Or even worse, we don’t bother to do those good deeds because we don’t expect to see the results. 

  And that comes to the second lesson. We are a people of hope and faith. We have to be in this for the long haul and practice our faith over our lives even if we may not see the results.  Our first reading today was from the prophet Ezekiel.  He prophesied during some of the bleakest of times in Ancient Israel,  Yet, he held out hope because he foresaw the future revival of Israel. In the second reading St. Paul reminds us that the recompense for our good deeds might not be in this world, but in the next.  St. Paul reminds us that we walk in faith. We have to have faith that our work will bear fruit over time. Jesus never promised the sower would see the large mustard tree that resulted from his work but Jesus did say it would indeed be there.  As our good deeds reverberate through the years, we might not see them, but we have to have hope and faith they will be there. 

So, your homework this week ( hey, I am a college professor) is for you to do what St. Francis of Assissi commanded his followers to do: Preach often and use words when necessary.  St. Francis (who was also a deacon by the way) told us to practice our faith, to do the little random acts of kindness to other people, to live our Christian faith. By doing that, we plant the mustard seed. We may not see its growth, but we can have hope and faith it  will be there.