The parable of the mustard seed comes true in the Church. That is how she began: as small as a mustard seed. To start the proclamation of his kingdom, our Lord chose a handful of poor men who had plenty of defects. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
Faith to overcome obstacles. St. Josemaría stated, “My children, that's how the Work was accomplished - with no money, and no virtues. All I had was twenty-six years of age and a sense of humor."
This splendid development is a perennial call to us to increase our faith and show it in deeds, by our life of dedication and our faithfulness. Faith and fidelity are necessary when obstacles threaten to convince us that our undertaking is impossible; faith and fidelity, when objective difficulties make us feel once again as small as a mustard seed. “In times of struggle and opposition, when perhaps ‘the good’ fill your way with obstacles, lift your apostle's heart; listen to Jesus as he speaks of the grain of mustard seed and the leaven. And say to him: ‘Explain the parable to me.’"
“And you'll feel the joy of contemplating the victory to come; birds of the air, sheltering under your apostolate, now in its beginnings; and the whole of the meal leavened."
Faith and fidelity too, when the obstacles arise from our personal shortcomings, and we feel the threat of our weaknesses and the twisted inclinations in our flesh and our soul. Faith in God, faith in grace, and fidelity. “We have to be very happy: everything will be fine. Things have always worked out, even when we caused obstacles ourselves through our infidelity."
However, our effectiveness is conditional on our fidelity. We must open up the divine paths of the earth, showing people its divine beauty. And its apostolic growth has no limits. “If we are faithful and generous in our sowing, whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. Look and see how much good grain there will be when time has gone by: the harvest of our desires!" We must sow with faith, every day, through the fulfillment of our Norms of piety, through ready obedience, through heroic faithfulness to our plan of life, and our beginning again and again in our inner struggle.
We need faith to give ourselves fully, vigorously, to our daily work, without opening so much as a crack where routine can creep in, or discouragement, weariness, or pessimism. We need faith to fulfill the little duty of every moment heroically, if need be, and to carry out our work in due order, tenaciously. This is how a farmer sows his seed, and then carries out one by one all the tasks that are needed to make it grow, with his eyes on the harvest which will come.
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