The Mustard Seed

Audistis hodie, fratres, quemadmodum grano sinapis tota regni coelestis comparata est magnitudo. Et quid est quod potestatem tantam, sic parva, sic minima immo minimorum minima similitudo concludit? Sic enim ait Dominus: Cui simile est regnum Dei? Et cui simile aestimabo illud? Cum dicit: Cui simile, quasi quaerentis indicat et producit affectum. Et ille solus Verbum, scientiae fons, dicendi flumen, qui omnium corda rigat, sensus aperit, ingenium dilatat, in invenienda similitudine nunc laborat? Sed quid invenerit audiamus. Simile est, inquit, regnum coelorum grano sinapis. Quaerens in coelo et in terra, nil invenit nisi granum sinapis, in quo potentiam totam supernae dominationis includat; et illud regnum singularitate potens, aeternitate felix, divinitate fulgens, diffusum toto coelo, tota terra dilatatum, in grani sinapis coarctat et concludit angustias. Simile est regnum coelorum grano sinapis. Spes ista est credentium tota? Exspectatio ista est fidelium summa? Ista est felicitas virginum longis continentiae laboribus comparata? Ista est gloria martyrum totius effusione sanguinis conquisita? Hoc est quod nec oculus vidit, nec auris audivit, nec in cor hominis ascendit? hoc est quod ineffabili sacramento diligentibus Deum promittit Apostolus esse praeparatum? Fratres, non facile Dominicis moveamur in dictis; nam si infirmum Dei, fortius est hominibus; et stultum Dei sapientius est hominibus, hoc minimum Dei tota magnitudine mundi magnificentius invenitur; si modo hoc granum sinapis nos sic nostris seminemus in mentibus, ut intelligentiae magnam nobis in arborem crescat, et sensus altitudine tota levetur ad coelum, ac totos scientiarum diffundatur in ramos atque ita ora nostra ferventia vivido fructus sui sapore succendat, et ita igne seminis sui toto nobis ardeat, et flammetur in pectore, atque nostrae ignorantiae totum nobis auferat sua degustatione fastidium. Simile est regnum coelorum grano sinapis, quod acceptum homo misit in hortum suum, et crevit, et factum est in arborem magnam, et volucres coeli requieverunt in ramis eius. Grani sinapis, sicut dicit, instar est regnum Dei, quod de supernis affertur verbo, suscipitur auditu, fide seritur, credulitate radicatur, spe crescit, confessione diffunditur, virtute tenditur, et dilatatur in ramos, ad quos vocat aves coeli, id est, spirituales sensus, atque in ipsis eas quieta suscipit mansione. Sanctus Petrus Chrysologus, Sermo XCVIII, De Parabola Grani Sinapis Source: Migne PL 52.474b-475b

You have heard today, brothers, that the whole greatness of the kingdom of heaven has been compared to a mustard seed. And how is it that such power is contained within something so small, so little, indeed is in the likeness of the littlest of little things? For the Lord says: 'To what shall I liken the kingdom of God? To what shall I compare it?' 1 When He says, 'To what shall I liken,' it shows Him as one who is as if seeking and producing an effect. And does that only Word, the fount of knowledge, the river of eloquence, who waters all hearts and opens all minds and expands all intellects, now toil in the finding of a likeness? Let us hear what He finds. 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,' He says. Seeking in the heavens and the earth He finds nothing but a mustard seed in which the total power of the supernal realm might be encompassed, and that kingdom of singular power, that happiness in eternity, the Divine light, which brightens all the heavens, and stretches out across the whole earth, he narrows and closes up in the constricted space of a mustard seed? 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.' This is the whole hope of believers? This is the consummation of the expectation of faithful? This is to be compared to the happiness of virgins after their long labours of contentince? This has been found to match the whole glory of the martyrs who poured out their blood? This is 'What the eye has not seen, and the ear not heard, nor has it arisen to the heart of a man?' 2 This is that ineffable mystery which is prepared for the lovers of God according to the promise of the Apostle? Brothers, let us not be so easily bewildered by the words of the Lord. 'For if the weakness of God is stronger than men, and the foolishness of God is wiser than men,' 3 this least thing of God is found to be more magnificent than the whole greatness of the world, if in this way we sow in our minds this mustard seed, so that a great tree of understanding grow up in us, and the whole height of the mind rise up to heaven, and in all the branches knowledge be diffused, so that our eager mouth is set alight with the lively taste of its fruit, and the fire of its seed burn all through us and flame up in the heart, and all the weakness of ignorance be driven out by its taste. 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man received and placed in his garden and it grew and it became a great tree and the birds of heaven rested on its branches.' The mustard seed, as He says, is an image of the kingdom of God, which is brought by the Word from the heights, and is received by hearing, and is planted by faith, and is rooted by belief, and it grows by hope, and it spreads by confession, and it stretches forth with virtue, and it expands its branches, to which it calls the birds of heaven, that is, the spiritual senses, which he receives in himself wit his place of peace. Saint Peter Chrysologus, from Sermon 98, On The Parable Of The Mustard Seed 1 Lk 13.18 2 1 Cor 2.9 3 1 Cor 1.25