26 October 2021
Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time
Even a short visit to a bookstore, particularly a bookstore in an airport, will reveal a pile of books under the general rubric of leadership. Perhaps no noun has gained more attention in the last decade than leadership. Courses, workshops, and books, have weighed in how one becomes a leader. Most of these noble tomes have been penned (with the able assistance of someone who actually knows how to write) by persons who are proven leaders and have the salaries commensurate with their attained status. Thus, it may appear to some, that the journey taken by “true leaders” deserves to be told, heard, and followed. Today’s scripture reminds us that growth and advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, the only real and ultimate goal of Christian leadership, has its image in a mustard seed. Check it out, those seeds really are small, about the size of a comma on this page. And yet, Jesus compares the spread of the Kingdom, the goal of every Christian, as something the size of comma. This image has an equal in the small amount of yeast that goes into the dough to make it rise. So, it should be some consolation to those of us whose lives would not merit reading on the flight to New York that the small things we do to promote our own spiritual lives and the betterment of others are the model for how to promote the Kingdom of Christ.