The Gospel at Mass on Thursday of the Third Week in Ordinary Time: Mark 4:21-25
Today's Gospel reading opens telling us Christ was speaking to his disciples only and not to the crowds at large.
But today's reading is only the second half of what Christ was saying to his followers.
The first half was in yesterday's Gospel reading [Mark 4:1-20].
There had been a very large crowd listening to Christ teach.
But once he was alone with his apostles and other followers, he said:
The mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.We, the followers of Christ, have received the mystery of the Kingdom of God.
But to those outside everything comes in parables....
God means for us to accept the mystery of his Kingdom and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.
God wants this mystery to shine from us as from a lamp on a stand.
They mystery of the Kingdom of God has been granted to you.
It comes to us in the Word of the Lord, in the Gospel of the Lord.
Yet we also take, eat and drink the mystery of the Kingdom of God in the Body and Blood of Christ that we are now celebrating as the new and eternal covenant ... for the forgiveness of sins.
As we Do this in memory of Christ, he wants this covenant to be made visible in our lives and to come to light.
It is our mission as Christians to work at that.
The greater the measure by which we let the mystery of God's Kingdom shine from us, the more we will receive.
As he promises us in his Gospel today:
The measure with which you measure will be measured out to you,Let us use a most generous measure in offering ourselves in sacrifice to God at his altar here and in every hour of our lives.
and still more will be given to you.
May the Lord accept US in sacrifice
for the praise and glory of his name,
for our good
and the good of all his holy Church.
