+ 13 June AD 2021+

Reflection for 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B 

In 1994, Amazon Boss, Jeff Bezos made the decision to create an online bookseller. He quit his job in New York, drove to Bellevue, Washington and rented an apartment. He spent the entire year working on what he would officially launch in 1995 as Amazon.com. When Amazon was launched, Jeff had only one warehouse – his garage, one product- books, and one online seller, Jeff. Today, Amazon has over 150 warehouses, sells literally everything and anything under the sun, and has over 9.7 million sellers all over the world. Today, Jeff Bezos is celebrated as the richest person in the world. Amazingly, the Amazon journey that began in his garage space is leading him to Space. All that Jeff needed was a garage for a warehouse; today he has turned the world into a global warehouse! 

For me, what stands out in Jeff’s story is the fact that in the pursuit of any worthwhile goal, no effort is too small for a start. While for others, such efforts may be considered insignificant or even a waste of time, such insignificant, small and humble effort can turn out to be the runway for greater heights. This is the crux of the second part of today’s gospel. 

In the parable of the Mustard seed, Jesus explains that although the mustard seed is a very tiny seed, once sown, it has the potential to become the greatest shrub in the forest. In its full manifestation, the mustard seed can become a large shrub, providing shade for humans, habitation and rest for birds. Jesus told this parable in reference to his own experience and expression of the reign of God. This is akin to the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God as manifested in Jesus’ ministry had a pretty small start. He began his ministry with only four fishermen as disciples (Mark 1:15-17). After a while he  added eight others to the team and called them Apostles (Luke 6:12-16). Within a year or so he added 72 others to the evangelical team (Luke 10:1). Today, Christianity is the most populous religion in the world with about 2.38 billion adherents. 

Indeed, the parable of the mustard seed has great pedagogical value. It teaches us that your smallest effort today can become the most decisive move that puts you on a trajectory of unimaginable success. You do not have to wait until you can build a large warehouse in order to set up a global market; all that you need is a garage. For Christians, we do not need to have one million followers on twitter or one million YouTube subscribers or one million friends on Facebook in order to spread the kingdom of God. God values our little efforts. In the pursuit of success, happiness, growth, salvation, no effort is too little. What is that mustard seed that you must plant, water, nurture and prune, in order to have a successful and happy life, career, and family? What is that mustard seed that we must cultivate today in order to make it to the kingdom of God!

    Fr. Lazarus Onuh