October 29

Above: Statue of St. Dominic in St. Peter’s Basilica by Pierre Le Gros. Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P.

In today’s Gospel (Luke 13: 18-21), Jesus likens the Kingdom of God first to a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. The seed grew into a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches. Jesus then compares the Kingdom of God to yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened. In these two images, the Kingdom of God begins as something very small and seemingly insignificant but is transformed and transforming. The seed planted and tended becomes a dwelling place. The yeast mixed and kneaded permeates the dough and becomes food.

St. Dominic is like the man and the woman in today’s Gospel. Dominic took the seed, the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and planted it; took the yeast, the saving message of the Gospel, and spread it to the people and places of his times. Before Dominic preached the Word or founded the Order of Preachers, however, the Word was first planted, took root, and grew in him. Through prayer and contemplation, Dominic was then nurtured, transformed, and impelled to preach the Word to others. 

May we, like St. Dominic, be transformed by the Good News of our salvation, faithfully live and preach the Gospel message, and set our hearts on the Kingdom that is to come.

St. Dominic, Preacher of Grace, Evangelical Man, and Trumpet of the Gospel, pray for us.