Eleventh Sunday Ordinary Time

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

1. Patience: These Are Only Seeds

2. While the Farmer Sleeps…

Greeting (Eph 3:20-21)

Glory to him whose power, working in us,
can do infinitely more
than we can ask or imagine.
Glory to him in the church
and in Christ Jesus.
May the Lord Jesus be with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

1.   Patience: These Are Only Seeds

      We live in a time that expects efficiency and immediate results. But a plant or a tree needs time to grow; and human relations cannot be built nor our problems solved overnight. People too need time to grow and change. Fortunately, God is patient with us. But we must become patient with one another and, with God’s help, give people and the Church and God’s Kingdom of justice and peace and love the time needed to grow. We can just sow the seed and then wait in hope. If it is a good seed we sow, it will certainly grow. Jesus assures us that it will sprout and bear fruit.

2.   While the Farmer Sleeps

      After carefully preparing the soil, what can the farmer do once he has sown the seed? He can do no more than hoe and pull the weeds, and then wait patiently till harvest time. Jesus planted the seeds of love and justice but the results remain poor. Yet we remain patient, as God stays patient, and we do not give up. The kingdom will flourish. In the meantime, each of us is a seed, with the power to grow. I have to become a tree and grow branches in which others can take shelter. With God’s help I must become a tree that cleans the suffocating air so that others can breathe and live. With Jesus we give thanks to God for his patience with us, and we ask for patience for ourselves.

Penitential Act

Too often we have been impatient
with ourselves, with one another, with our world.
May the Lord be patient with us and forgive us.
                        (pause)
Lord Jesus, you give each of us the time
to become mature in our faith:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, you give your Church the time
to grow in unity and a spirit of service:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you give our world the time
to grow in peace and justice:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Be patient with us, Lord, and forgive us
all the sins we have committed against you
and against one another.
Lead us forward in hope to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray
that we may give the seed time to grow
                        (pause)
Curb our impatience, Lord,
when we try to impose
your truth and justice and peace
on a Church and a world
not yet disposed to welcome them.
In our helplessness and discouragement
may we learn to accept
that all true growth comes from you.
We can only plant the seed,
and you make it bloom into a mighty tree
that lets us give shelter to all.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading: Ezequias 17:22-24 A Small Shoot Is Enough for God

From the small remnant of Israel, God will make himself a new people.

Thus says the Lord GOD:
I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,
from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,
and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;
on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.
It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,
and become a majestic cedar.
Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,
every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.
And all the trees of the field shall know
that I, the LORD,
bring low the high tree,
lift high the lowly tree,
wither up the green tree,
and make the withered tree bloom.
As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 92:2-3, 13-14, 15-16

R. (cf. 2a) Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
It is good to give thanks to the LORD,
to sing praise to your name, Most High,
To proclaim your kindness at dawn
and your faithfulness throughout the night.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
The just one shall flourish like the palm tree,
like a cedar of Lebanon shall he grow.
They that are planted in the house of the LORD
shall flourish in the courts of our God.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.
They shall bear fruit even in old age;
vigorous and sturdy shall they be,
Declaring how just is the LORD,
my rock, in whom there is no wrong.
R. Lord, it is good to give thanks to you.

Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:6-10: We Trust in the Lord

In the tensions of a life lived in faith, a Christian tries to live close to Christ and to prepare for the definitive encounter of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters:
We are always courageous,
although we know that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord,
for we walk by faith, not by sight.
Yet we are courageous,
and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.
Therefore, we aspire to please him, 
whether we are at home or away.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,
so that each may receive recompense,
according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower.
All who come to him will live forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Mark 4:26-34: A Tiny Seed Becomes a Big Shrub

God is active, whatever the appearances. His word will bear fruit. Notwithstanding its humble beginnings, God’s kingdom will surpass all expectations.

Jesus said to the crowds:
“This is how it is with the kingdom of God;
it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land
and would sleep and rise night and day
and through it all the seed would sprout and grow,
he knows not how.
Of its own accord the land yields fruit,
first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once,
for the harvest has come.”

He said,
“To what shall we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it?
It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants
and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.”
With many such parables
he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them,
but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

Intercessions

The tiny seed needs time to become a plant. It is the Lord who gives it the power to grow. Let us pray to God and say:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That the tiny spark of faith still alive in the hearts of many who abandon the Church may not be extinguished but grow again into a bright light to guide them to God and people, let us pray:

 R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That the timid seed of peace may grow again into a flourishing effort of dialogue and understanding, that our world may see the end of wars and civil strife, let us pray:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That our schools may implant into the hearts of our youth the seeds of faith, of generous and serving love, and that the Lord may bless the educators who help in this tremendous task, let us pray:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That missionaries may keep sowing the seed of the joyful Good News of the Lord in our often indifferent and hostile world, let us pray:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That people inspired by the Spirit of God may not get discouraged in sowing the seed of justice in communities and among nations, let us pray:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

– That the seeds of sharing and unity may keep growing in our Christian communities, until they become one heart and one mind in the Lord who gathers them at his table, let us pray:

R/ Lord, your Kingdom come.

Lord, be patient with us, and give to the seeds which your Son has sown in our hearts the time to grow and to reach to heaven, through Christ Jesus our Lord. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Almighty and patient Father,
we bring before you the fruits
grown from tiny seeds of wheat
and the small shoots of the vine.
By the power of your Spirit
they will become Jesus, your Son among us.
Let the seed of his life and message
bear fruit among us, your people,
and make us the body of Christ to the world,
that trust and hope may grow among us.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

Let us give thanks to the Father that he has made himself a partner in our human history through his Son Jesus Christ.

Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer

With Jesus we pray in trust
that God’s kingdom may come among us,
however slow its growth may seem: R/ Our Father...

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Lord, from every evil
of sin and discouragement.
Grant us your kind of peace,
your justice and your love,
for ours are marked too much
with pride and self-interest.
Keep up our hopes and assure us
that in your own good time
you will bring to a good end
the work you have begun among us through your Son,
as we await with joy
the final coming of our Savior Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus, our Savior,
the seed planted among us
that died but rose again from the dead.
Happy are we to receive him
and to grow through him. R/ Lord, I am not worthy.

Prayer after Communion

God our Father,
with a generous hand you have sown
among us here in this Eucharist
the seed of all that is good and true,
your Son Jesus Christ.
However insignificant and disappointing
our faith and love may seem now,
give us the hope and the courage
that he can unite us in a community
where justice, truth and freedom will prevail
until the crop is ready for reaping.
Grant us this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing

Patience, together with a sense of humble modesty,
is what we need in looking at our efforts
and the work of God among us.
Not that our efforts are useless,
but when we try to do God’s work
to make our world more God’s world
or his Kingdom, as we call it,
then we must always remember and respect
that God is the first agent in all this:
he plants, he gives growth,
he will do the harvesting.
But he expects us to cooperate with him.
May God bless you for this task:
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go in the peace of the Lord, and may his hope sustain you. R/ Thanks be to God.

Commentary

There are times when it is necessary to "sleep," that is, to know how to wait, to keep calm, and to sit and contemplate in amazement the seed that sprouts and grows by itself. The fruits will undoubtedly go beyond all expectations. Whoever is not convinced of this does not have faith in the prodigious power of Christ's word.

Today's parable is t addressed to those who announce the word of God. Mark the evangelist must have been seeing the disappointments and frustrations on the faces of preachers of the Gospel in his community. In spite of all the good efforts they have put in announcing the message of Jesus, the rulers continued to persecute the Christians. Naturally the preachers are disappointed. Mark wants to encourage them and recalls the two parables of Jesus.

Through the parable of the seed sown by the farmer, Jesus wants to emphasise the role of God in the whole process of preaching the Gospel – i.e., sowing the seed and establishing the Kingdom. Role of the preacher is only minimum – Just preach the Word! The rest of the work which happens in the hearts, in the lives of people, is the work of God.

When and how would the listener respond the Word should not be the concern of the preacher. His job is only to preach the Word of God. Rest is God’s work.

The evangelist tells of a man who sows the seed - he joyfully and unsparingly scatters the precious grains everywhere. This is how the Gospel message must be spread, in abundance, not in a defined and restricted field, but everywhere, in the whole world. This is an invitation to overcome any exclusivism; no one should consider God's blessings are reserved for them alone.
After the sowing season comes the moment when the farmer sleeps and watches. It is useless for him to get restless, or worry; the process underway now no longer depends on him; if he gets restless if he enters the field, he only causes trouble, he tramples and damages the tender shoots. All he must do is to wait. In fact, in silence the miracle begins, the seed sprouts from the earth.
The assimilation of the Gospel message is not immediate; the work of a person's inner transformation requires days and years. However, once it has penetrated the heart, the word of Christ sets in motion an unstoppable dynamism, even if slow. Those who have heard it never remain the same.
Mark reminds the leaders of his community and also today’s faithful not to be discouraged even if no immediate result is noticed. A model preacher is St. Paul, who declared to the Corinthians, "I planted, Apollos watered, but it is God who made it grow" (1 Cor 3:6).