Scripture Reflections for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Year B, Lectionary 92


God's kingdom cannot be stopped but will reign forever. But it is not a dominion like other worldly kingdoms likened to cedar. Jesus compares the kingdom of God like seeds that often grow unbeknownst to us, starting from small graceful moments but that in God's time and guidance spreads across the land. The impact of God's grace eventually becomes apparent when others can benefit from its fruits.

Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: AbundanceCareChangeCommunityDeathDreamEnvironmentEvangelizeFaithFatherFormationGiftGrowGrowthHarvestHistoryHopeHumilityHumorJoyJudgmentKingdomLoveMotiveMustard SeedParablePatiencePowerlessnessPraisePrayerProphecySeedSeedsSightSinSmallSupportTransformationTreeVulnerable

Psalm 92:2-3, 13-16
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
Catholic Productions

“This flows right out of Paul's statements that we will be judged according to what we've done while we're in the body, not what happens after, but while we're in the body. It's human life that is decisive for how we'll spend eternity.”


Brant Pitre in "The Particular Judgment" (June 09, 2021)
Mark 4:26-34

“Many times as human beings when we don't see immediate results we want to give up but remember the seed does not germinate the same day it is planted”


Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo (June 10, 2024)

“But the question is then how do we bring about justice in this case? You know, how do we care for the small seeds? And God is the one bringing out the justice but we are the agents of that justice.”


Angelo Kurbanali in "Evolution & growth" (June 13, 2024)
Bellarmine Chapel

“The mustard plant is an invasive plant, once you plant it it spreads, it is hard to control. Isn't that the Kingdom? Once it is planted you cannot control it, it just grows.”


Fr. Damian Torres-Botello, SJ (June 16, 2024)
Catholic Productions

“the parables are meant to function as riddles, right. They are meant to kind of draw you into the mystery of the Kingdom by both revealing some aspect of it, they are meant to teach something, but at the same time that they reveal they also conceal. There's a mysterious element to all of the parables of Jesus.”


Brant Pitre in "The Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly" (May 02, 2023)
St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, Philadelphia

“The way we think it should be worked out, God might laugh at that but that's when you trust and your faith helps you understand…the growth is happening on God's time and God's way, you got to be open to it to what God is doing.”


Fr. Stephen Thorne in "Mustard Seed Moment" (June 17, 2018)
Overall Readings

“Sometimes we need to get out of the way. We are not always the focus, sometimes we are the facilitator for something bigger than ourselves. The growth of God’s kingdom is God’s work not ours.”


Fr. Geoffrey Plant in "What parable can we find for the Kingdom of God?" (June 09, 2024)
St. Teresa of Avila - DC

“no matter whatever the situation, God is able. That’s what the kingdom of God is about, that’s what the kingdom of God is like.”


Monsignor Raymond East (June 13, 2021)
Saint Katharine Drexel Parish - Boston, MA

“However I would treat you I have to be ready to treat God the same way because God sees us treating God in that way when we do it to one of God's children”


Fr. Oscar Pratt (June 13, 2021)
St. Teresa of Avila - DC

“For the people...of God, that cedar represented standing tall in the midst of a storm”


Monsignor Raymond East (June 16, 2024)

“our scripture passages today tell us that no matter who we are God will indeed give us the strength to be all that he needs us to be”


Fr. Tony Ricard (June 16, 2024)
Catholic Productions

“he wants to show through the weakness of its members that the power of the kingdom is not from them but from God and that through...the way it doesn't cohere with previous empires of the world, that it's not a kingdom of this world but that it's a kingdom of heaven. That's the message of the Parable of the Mustard Seed.”


Brant Pitre in "The Jewish Roots of the Parable of the Mustard Seed" (February 09, 2023)

“Even if the evil one comes to add a period at the end of the most recent word that God has pronounced about us, do not give up because God is capable of coming under the period…to add a comma to make it a semicolon and to continue his statement about you”


Fr. Emmanuel Ochigbo (June 07, 2021)
Catholic Women Preach

“God's reign is where no one goes without, it's where there's love, where there's peace. God's reign is where right-relationship is the only kind of relationship. We're not there yet but in God's design our mustard seed steps to get there all have value.”


Gina Scaringella, OP (June 13, 2021)
Catholic Women Preach

“through the journey and the imagery of a mustard seed Jesus is inviting us to, one, to be open to God's presence in the process of tending to something and, two, to be surprised by abundance”


Kathleen O'Brien (June 16, 2024)
Catholic Women Preach

“We lay foundations that need further development for we are workers not master builders, ministers not messiahs, prophets of a future not our own”


Alyssa Pasternak Post (May 31, 2018)