The Harvest exclude no one from the Kingdom

Ex. 16:1-5.9-15, Mt. 13:1-9. Comparing today's first reading and the parable of today's Gospel, they describe two different views of how God deals with His people: in the first instance, God intervenes by signs and wonders; while in the parable, God works quietly, making the farmer’s hard work fruitful. After leaving Egypt the Israelites started to complain, first about the bitter water (Ex. 15:24) and then about the scarcity of meat and bread. Clearly they preferred a return to slavery in a land where they had plenty to eat, rather risk the journey to freedom and human dignity through the desert. God responded with a miracle that was not just for the benefit of the grumblers but for all future generations of His people, including ourselves.

In today's Gospel, Jesus describes the normal growth of wheat or barley. The system of fanning is quite different from ours but it would have been familiar to His listeners. Jesus draws attention to the certainty of the harvest, yielding “grain a hundred- or sixty- or thirty-fold.” This harvest excludes nobody from the Kingdom: whether with few or with many talents, all have a part. Not only does the natural process of sowing, growth and harvesting contrast with the sudden appearance of the quail and manna, but the parable insists on the virtue of waiting. The people in the desert wanted instant gratification and rejected the slow trek through the desert with its austerities and deprivations. What a contrast to Moses, a man of strong and humble faith, tested in all sorts of ways and still persevering in his mission to lead the people under God’s providential care.

May the Lord provide profitable job for those who have no work and may they be comforted in challenging situations! Amen!! Good morning, it is well with you!!!