DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday. September 29, 2018

Jesus  told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” – Matthew 13:33

To me, this parable is a teaching about process, the process of how a person of grace, their words, their actions, their example, their quality of spirit, slowly transforms the world around that person.   That process is by way of entering into the world with a Presence Holy, human and Divine.

But a word of caution, a statement of how this yeast process works … the ways of the world are also yeast trying to transform the person of grace.  Jesus once warned His disciples … “Be aware of the yeast of the Pharisees (for it so subtly ends up changing a soul and a movement from its original intent and its original way).  As the Christ within us seeks to change the world from the inside out; so do the ways of the world.

And what are those ways of the world of which I speak?

Materialism and greed, militarism and patriotism, self-interest and self-glorification, pride and hubris, intimidation and violence,… these are a few of those forces in the world that world tends to make more righteous than the righteousness of Christ.

And in the reverse that worldly process of the yeast slowly filling the soul is the yeast of the new Realm of God: grace, mercy, wisdom, gentleness of spirit, peacemaking, truth, hope, heavenly joy, goodness, kindness, patience, long-suffering for the sake of enduring, self-giving love, generosity… among so many other qualities of Christ’s Spirit.

So this is our mission … to go into the world without being overtaken by the world.

Always in Christ’s Service,

Fr. Chairtas de la Cruz