Tuesday of the Thirtieth Week in Ordinary Time (October 31, 2017): The reign of God in the midst of our sufferings

One of the signs that God’s kingdom is here, now, rather than only in heaven or after the Second Coming of Christ, is the fact that in times of trouble there is hope. There is faith. There is trust in God. There’s even joy!

These proofs of God’s reign usually start very small, like tiny mustard seeds or granules of yeast, as Jesus points out in today’s Gospel reading. If we have even the smallest hope, a tiny portion of faith, a wee bit of trust, or a little joy, and if we plant it in the soil of our sufferings where our tears water our prayers, or if we knead it in the dough of our struggles and let it rise in the warmth of our friendship with Christ, it grows. We reap countless blessings.

The Kingdom of God is a kingdom of ministry. Jesus ministers to you and asks you to minister to others. The field of our hardships can either produce pointless sufferings and wasted time and destruction, leaving us with scars that never fully heal and grief that never ends, or it can produce a ministry of outreach and compassion, blessing others as Jesus ministers to them through us, and giving us many reasons to rejoice.

To experience the reign of God in our lives right now, right here in our present pain, we must turn to Jesus to be ministered to and allow him to use our sufferings for the sake of others, like he showed us to do by the example of his own life. It’s only when we can see good coming from our hardships that our grief becomes joy and our tears become seeds that sprout into blessed fruits of God’s Kingdom.

Our first reading today shows us the attitude of one who lives in God: “I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us.” The reign of God is not a quick fix or a snap of God’s almighty finger to produce a magical solution that stops every evil that we cover in prayer. It takes time. And for good reason!

As more dough gets added to our lives, more yeast is required, but the result is a bigger bread that can feed more people. The larger the field that gets fertilized and tilled when we get plowed over with life’s difficulties, the more seeds of God’s Kingdom we can sow, producing a larger crop and providing more of God’s Kingdom to the world.

The reign of God is the glory revealed even — maybe even especially — in the midst of our sufferings. It’s the glory that’s revealed inyou and me and through you and me. It’s, as Saint Paul calls it, hope.

Our hope is based on the redemptive power of Christ’s sacrificial love. Someday, our earthly sufferings will end at the redemption of our bodies as we leave earth in the embrace of Jesus. In the meantime, by his redemptive love, our willingness to minister to others transforms all of our sacrifices into great goodness and tremendous glories here on earth.

Lord: You have given me the gift of Faith in my baptism. Help me to make it grow every day, surrendering my pain to You, awaiting Your awesome work. Amen.