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“For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed.” Wisdom 18:14–15In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.The Mustard Seed and the LeavenOur Gospel reading today consists of four of Jesus’ parables that describe the Kingdom of Heaven. The first section is about a mustard seed that is the smallest of all seeds but which when it grows becomes the largest garden plant and then a tree with branches that prove themselves hospitable to the birds. The second is a woman who hid some leaven in three measures of dough until it was all leavened.What is Jesus’ meaning in these parables? Put simply, I think that here he is telling us that there is a smallness and a hiddenness to the things of God.Consider the mustard seed: small at first. But when it is cast into the ground and dies, it grows up again and becomes something of great significance.The leaven likewise is literally hidden in the flour, invisible to the eyes of the world, and yet it spreads through the flour until the flour is completely permeated with it.About this, the Patristic Father Peter Chrysologus says:“Christ is the kingdom of heaven. Sown like a mustard seed in the garden of the virgin’s womb, he grew up into the tree of the cross whose branches stretch across the world. Crushed in the mortar of the passion, its fruit has produced seasoning enough for the flavoring and preservation of every living creature with which it comes in contact.” Chrysologus, Sermon 98In our catechesis class, we have been reading the letters of St Ignatius of Antioch, a second century bishop who was transported across Asia Minor to Rome where he was eventually martyred. One of the themes that he returns to in these letters is the silence of God. By this he does not mean God’s absence, but that there is a certain way that God acts in the world.In Christ, God’s plan was hidden in the womb of the Virgin. His identity was concealed under the humble guise of a carpenter’s son. Even in his public ministry, when he was performing his miracles, he was careful not to make himself known too soon. Upon the cross, he died the seemingly ignominious death of a common criminal. But all of this was given so that the prince of this world, the Devil, might be thwarted in his schemes. For in Christ’s resurrection and ascension, his glory has finally been revealed. As Ignatius wrote to the church in Ephesus:“The age-old empire of evil was overthrown, for God was now appearing in human form to bring in a new order, even life without end. Now that which had been perfected in Divine counsels began its work; and all creation was thrown into a ferment over this plan for the utter destruction of death.” Ignatius, Epistle to the EphesiansAnd not only this. After his ascension, the Apostles and their companions were left alone, waiting for the promised gift of the Holy Spirit – not that they understood what this meant of course. A small band of seemingly inconsequential people, without power, without resources, fearful about what might happen to them. But then what came to pass? The gift of the Holy Spirit, the fire of Pentecost, the conversion and baptism of thousands and the birth of the Christian Church.Again, as Chrysologus says:“The man Christ received the mustard seed which represents the kingdom of God…He sowed it in his garden, that is in his bride the Church. The Church is a garden extending over the whole world, tilled by the plough of the gospel…fragrant and lovely with perennial flowers; virgins’ lilies, martyrs’ roses set amid the pleasant verdure of all who bear witness to Christ and the tender plants of all who have faith in him.” Chrysologus, Ibid.We might hear that and wonder why God chooses to act in this way. Why the small beginnings? Why the hidden action? It is surely that we might learn the lesson, which is that God