Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, peace be with you! In today’s readings, we are invited to reflect on two seemingly different but deeply connected themes: the punishment of sin and the mysterious, quiet growth of God’s kingdom. In Exodus, we encounter the stark scene of Israel’s idolatry and the righteous anger of Moses, and in the Gospel, Jesus offers us two gentle images—a mustard seed and a bit of yeast—each representing the slow and hidden growth of God’s reign. At first glance, punishment and growth may seem like opposites. But in the light of the Church’s teaching, they are bound together by one common goal: our conversion, our healing, and ultimately, our transformation.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church helps us to understand God’s punishments not as acts of vengeance, but as expressions of his justice and his mercy. God punishes sin, yes, but always with the goal of calling the sinner back to life. Paragraph 1472 of the Catechism teaches that sin has a double consequence: it breaks our communion with God, and it leaves a disordered attachment within us—a kind of spiritual damage that needs healing. Divine punishment, then, is not God lashing out in anger, but God permitting us to experience the real consequences of turning away from Him, so that we might wake up and return.
In today’s first reading, the people have fallen into idolatry—they made a golden calf and worshipped it, forgetting the God who freed them from slavery. The punishment that follows is not immediate destruction, but a process of confrontation, repentance, and renewal. Moses intercedes for the people, even offering himself in their place. God listens, and though He speaks of punishment, He also speaks of continuing to lead them—“My angel will go before you.” In other words, even in the face of sin, God doesn’t abandon His people. He disciplines, but always for the sake of healing and growth.
And that brings us to the Gospel. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed—so small, so easy to overlook. Or like yeast—hidden, but powerful. Growth in the kingdom is often invisible at first. It’s the kind of growth that happens when we respond to grace, especially in the aftermath of sin and failure. Divine punishment, when rightly understood, clears the ground for that growth. It sobers us. It reawakens our thirst for holiness. It reminds us that life without God is barren, and that only in Him do we find peace.
I remember being hospitalized here in Rome for a herniated disc in my spine. It was some of the most awful pain revisiting me as a messenger of God. Although I know exactly how the condition has developed over the years, and add to it my lack of due diligence which aggravated the situation to a boiling point, I also know God used it to speak to me, for the night after the operation I had one of the deepest dreams ever in my life. I was alone in the hospital. No family. No friends. In the middle of Rome. But God showed me my soul and what a wake up call it was, as a priest consecrated to Him who has been shown much mercy throughout his life. God punishes, disciplines—always for our good and because He loves us.
The Catechism reinforces this by reminding us that temporal punishments are not signs of rejection, but signs of love. Like a good parent, God disciplines His children not to harm them, but to teach them. The pain I endured in that hospital was not a damaging one but a healing one. This is a reflection of how God disciplines us. If we open ourselves to this truth, then even our most painful experiences—when examined with humility—can become occasions of grace. What the world sees as failure, God sees as soil. Soil where something small can be planted, and by His power, grow.
In our lives, we also all face moments when we, like the Israelites, are tempted to turn away—to craft our own golden calves, to trust more in our frivolous idols than in Almighty God who has shown Himself always to be our Father. And sometimes we feel the consequences deeply. But let us remember: God never stops pursuing us. He never gives up. He calls us through mercy, through correction, through the patient unfolding of grace. And if we respond—if we let the mustard seed of His Word take root—then growth will come. Quietly, steadily, powerfully.
Like yeast in the dough, God is working in us—even in our sin and struggle—to raise us up, to make us new, and to draw us deeper into His kingdom.
Amen.
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