Believe in the principle of ‘graduality’!
I realise how I have been sucked into the world of “fast-food”! I have become increasingly impatient. When I go for breakfast I want instant coffee. When I have a headache I want instant relief. When I email people I want instant replies. When I fall in love I want instant pleasure. When I have problems I want instant solutions. When I pray I want instant miracles!
The Kingdom of God is not a Fast-Food Joint: In the gospel text of today, Jesus reminds me that in the Kingdom of God problems will be solved at their own time. Evil may grow together with good; evil will not be uprooted instantly. I need to wait patiently until the end of time (Mt 13:24-30). The Kingdom of God grows like a mustard seed – it is not a finished product. It may seem tiny, it might grow slowly, but there will come a time when it will be big enough to attract the birds of the air (Mt 13:31-32). The Kingdom of God affects its environment like the yeast – it will not seem dramatic. The process may be hidden, it might take time, but there will come a time when the entire dough will be leavened (Mt 13:33). Don’t judge things by their appearance. Be patient. Believe in the law of graduality. God is in control.
The Kingdom of God is a process, and you too are!
Principle of Gradualness
In the recent years, in trying to encourage Christians who are at the periphery of the Church and are struggling to be perfect, Church leaders have revisited an idea that was proposed at the time of Saint Pope John Paul II: law of graduality or the principle of gradualness.
It is a principle used in the pastoral approach of the Church, according to which people should be encouraged to grow closer to God and his plan for their lives in a step-by-step manner rather than expecting to jump from an initial conversion to perfection in a single step. The ideal teaching of Jesus is not watered down. But we are encouraged to reach there gradually, and not get discouraged or to reject the invitation of Jesus because it is too demanding.
St Paul himself alludes to this when he writes to the Corinthians (1Cor 3:1-3): “I, brethren, could not address you as spiritual men, but as men of the flesh, as babes in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food; for you were not ready for it; and even yet you are not ready, for you are still of the flesh.”
This law, as I have said, should not be used to justify spiritual sloth or to turn this into a “gradualness of law”, as Pope John Paul II warned us, but as an invitation not to give up on the journey. Strive with patience towards the perfection of the Kingdom of God! As the mustard seed keeps growing day and night.
You can’t be today what time will make you tomorrow: Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit scientist, once wrote to his sister:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are all, quite naturally, impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new, and yet it is the law of all progress that is made by passing through some stages of instability- and that it may take a very long time.And so I think it is with you. Your ideas mature gradually – let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make you tomorrow.Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.