Monday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time, July 27, 2026

Gospel

Matthew 13:31-35

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.

Reflection

In today’s Gospel, Jesus uses two images to help us understand the Kingdom of Heaven, one of a mustard seed and the other yeast. Both seem small, and insignificant. However, when given the opportunity to grow and work, they become something far greater than we might have anticipated. While the mustard seed is of the smallest seeds, once planted and grown it becomes a large plant supporting great life. Similarly, the Kingdom of God often begins in ways that seem small or unnoticed, yet it has the power to grow beyond anything we could imagine. The yeast Jesus speaks of is also hidden within the flour. We cannot see it working, but slowly and quietly, it transforms the entire batch of dough.

In both examples there is something that seems ordinary almost hidden, but turns out to be extraordinary. This reminds me of Jesus Himself. He entered the world in a way that seemed humble and ordinary, born in a stable and son of a carpenter. Yet, through His life, death, and resurrection, He transformed the world forever. We often expect God to work through grand and extraordinary moments, but these parables remind us that He is just as present in the small and hidden moments of our lives.