Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- The Transformation of Parable

Matthew 13:31-35 Friends, in today’s Gospel,
Jesus describes the transforming power of the kingdom of God
by comparing it to a mustard seed and yeast.
The Church is the Body of Jesus,
the living organism that makes present Christ’s mind
and will in the world.
It is his love made flesh throughout the ages,
his hands and feet and eyes and heart.

We are all, through Baptism, members of that Body,
hence organically related to him and to each other.
Our purpose is his purpose:
to carry the nonviolent and forgiving love of God to a hungry world,
to go to the darkest places in search of sinners,
to be both judge and bearer of salvation.

The Church’s responsibility is not so much to make itself accessible to the world
but rather to transform the world.
It is the mustard seed, the leaven.
In Augustine’s terms,
it is the City of God making its way within the City of Man.

When we are most authentically ourselves,
embodying the spirit of Jesus—or better,
being his Body—we are most compelling and convincing.
When we make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ,
we exercise our mission properly.

+++Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches."
He spoke to them another parable.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.+++

This hardly the correct interpretation of this verse.
A natural mustard plant does not become a tree size plant.

I think using the term "hardly" here is bit too emotional. YMMV.
Your idea here of an interpretation is also based on some erroneous thought.

The mustard tree seed Jesus references, self-referentially as well-
could in fact grow to be 10 feet tall- from a tiny seed.
Thats is exactly how Christ desires it... " The Kingdom of Heaven is like...".

Remember, Christ is speaking in parable-
not explicit botanical science.
Any strident non-believer would also point out that
Christ was "wrong" to say the Mustard seed was the smallest seed.
Well, we know its not the smallest seed - and yer God’s words here are not in error-
Christ is speaking in parable- as the chapter here painfully points out.
He is merely conveying how the Kingdom of Heaven's growth will be immensely "transformative".

The leaven reference is used as a companion reference of the seed of Christ.
From the Catena... its best interpreted by Chrysostom:

"to His disciples,
As leaven changes into its own kind much wheat-flour,
so shall ye change the whole world.
Note here the wisdom of the Saviour;
He first brings instances from nature,
proving that as the one is possible so is the other.
And He says not simply ‘put,’ but hid;
as much as to say,
"So ye, when ye shall be cast down by your enemies,
then ye shall overcome them."

These parables were a warning to His followers

These parables are about trsnsformation and hope.
How you can derive a negative meaning-
let alone find fault with interpretation of the author is hard to understand.
The material references used in these parables are to be tsken
at face value, and not meant to have a correlation with the Exodus of the Jews or other scripture.
There is nothing demonic about these parables. That is why Christ says..

The Kingdom of Heaven IS like...

I will let others choose which interpretation they prefer.
But I will make note of one thing.
Birds of the air do not build nests in a 10 foot herb.
And birds of the air are considered to be crows, birds of prey or vultures; nothing small.
Through out all parables involving birds and all the way back to Joseph’s prophesies birds of the air are considered evil.

I just wanted to follow up.
No doubt you are probably more well versed on scripture than I, but I think you're still looking to interpret the parable in an explicit way, which in dealing with the metaphorical isn't necessary.
Whether a 10 foot tree/bush is “nestable” is not a functional part of the parable for us to consider.
Parables are designed to work on many levels- purposefully- bringing in various points of thought and imagery.
In this way -yes- they will speak to each of us on an individual level ot interpretation. Just like as the theme of this parable is, "The Word" as well, gets sown into each of us in different ways.
So the “badness” of the birds is not really important to the parable. Yes the birds of prey were the enemy of these ancient people. Though the birds eating the seed (The Word) in the parable, could very well be just be a metaphor for something evil (sin) preventing the person to whom the Word (seed) has been sown- hearer of the Word form truly understanding it, and living it.
Ever been around a tree full of a bunch of noisy birds in it? What a racket they make.
So even though “bad” birds are used, it could be that these damn birds are so noisy
as to drown out, distort, or simply won’t allow a person the opportunity to understand the Word.
80 years ago, CS Lewis saw, and wrote, that it is the “Noise” of our devilish modern day that keeps us from hearing God in our culture.
The “thorns” also choke off the growth from hearing the Word in the parable- but the badness of a thorn bush is not the issue, nor should it be focused on the birds.

So we need to be cautious about reading the parables looking for explicit or literal meaning.
Too often one can see a look at scripture to dissect it like a science or history text book,
Non-believers I come across make this mistake all the time to make their claims.
They cannot see (perhaps the birds in their lives are too noisy for them) that Biblical allegory and mixing of metaphors
really doesn’t allow for them to cleanly extricate their needed objections.
They don’t like being told that.

As an aside too… regarding Joseph, I would also consider the prophesy of Ezekiel in that similar context-

23 On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar.
Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches.

Is Christ referencing Ezekiel herein the sower parable, as a possible “Positive” inclusion of the Gentiles perhaps into the Kingdom?…
He very well could have been…
But that’s the wonderful pondering the parables give to us as we dive deeper into scripture.
Not as a text book of hardened, immutable facts,
but a hopeful, optimistic guide to what it should mean to each one of us.

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