11th Sunday Ordinary Time June 16, 2024

Readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24, 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, Mark 4:26-34

The first reading today from the Prophet Ezekiel and the Gospel both speak about starting a new plant, about sowing seed, about making something grow. The kingdom of heaven is about something new growing, in us and in the world around us. God is at work and makes new things happen. God is giving us His live and that is entirely new.

Perhaps today we take it for granted that God has become one of us in order to save us. We must stop for a moment and realize how incredible that is! God promises us His life and so He takes on our life and even dies so that we can have life. The challenge for us is the same as it was in the time of Jesus: do we want new life? Quite often we are content with the life we have. We only want to have enough food to eat and enough please to enjoy and we don’t want to be bothered with all the obligations of religiosity. This is sad. It means that a person has not encountered the living God but has only encountered religion in a bad way.

Once we begin to be aware of the new life that can be ours, we begin to want it more and more. It is not any obligation of religiosity that brings us to celebrate the Eucharist or to take part in the Christian community. It is the encounter with the risen Lord. The Second Letter to the Corinthians today puts it this way: we aspire to please Him, whether we are at home or away.

Most people give up on Church or on religious practice because they have never met the Lord. You and I need to find ways to invite people to meet the Lord. If we ourselves have not met Him, then we cannot preach Him or give witness to Him. May this new life that God promises us take place in our lives and may we be able to share it with others.

                               ‘HAPPY FATHER’S DAY’ TO ALL THE FATHERS

 Fr. Terry.