Please read the passage before the homily.
My sisters and brothers,
How is it with the kingdom of God? It is a process of sowing seed in a field and preparing for a harvest. It is a process like the tiny mustard seed that grows big enough for the birds can build nests in its shade.
The kingdom is not the mustard seed, nor is it the sowing of the seed. It is the entire process of preparing, plowing planting, nurturing, ripening, harvesting. It is the process of growing from seed to developing a root system, sprouting, maturing and taking over the garden.
The kingdom of God is what happens in April after the frost season, what continues in May and comes to fruition sometime in October or November. It is a child conceived in the womb, that comes to birth, that becomes a toddler, a child, a teenager, a young adult, a mature adult and eventually a retired adult. It is not the planting, the growth, the harvesting, the final years that is the kingdom; it is the whole process.
In the months between planting and harvesting, we eat, sleep, visit friends, fertilize, weed, and wait. While we do this the seed in its hidden way bursts out of the seed, sprouts, grows, matures, ripens, and reaches readiness for the harvest.
Each aspect, each moment, each element illustrates phase of the kingdom. We can learn from each aspect.
The Church here on earth is a phase of the kingdom of God. Each of us is a part of the kingdom. Our personal growth from conception through birth to adulthood mirrors the growth of the Church from
its beginnings to the fulness of redemption in heaven. In one sense the kingdom of God is like God’s creation of the world. From our point of view, it has taken thousands of years for the universe to come to its present state. From God’s point of view, it is here now in its fulness, but in our point of view, we do not see the fulness of the universe now. So, likewise, God’s kingdom is here now, but we do not see its fulness now. We have to await to experience the fulness of the kingdom as it grows from planting to harvesting, from smallness to bigness. We see part of the progress, but God sees the entirety of the kingdom.