Mark 4:30

Now a simile differs from a parable; for it is written in Mark, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?" From this it is plain that there is some logical distinction between a comparison and a parable. The simile seems to be generic, and the parable specific. The simile, which is the highest genus of the parable, contains the parable as one of its species.

And he said: To what shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what parable shall we compare it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown in the ground, is smaller than all the seeds that are on the earth. The kingdom of God is the preaching of the Gospel and the knowledge of the Scriptures which leads to life, and about which it is said to the Jews: The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation producing its fruits. Therefore, the kingdom of this kind is like a mustard seed which, according to the Gospel of Matthew, a man took and sowed in his field (Matthew XIII). The man who sows is understood by many to be the Savior, who sows in the hearts of the believers. By others, the man himself sowing in the earth or his field, that is, in himself and in his heart. Who is it that sows if not our understanding and mind? Which, receiving the seed of preaching and nurturing the sown with the moisture of faith, makes it sprout in the field of his heart.

(ubi sup.) Again, the man who sows is by many taken to mean the Saviour Himself, by others, man himself sowing in his own heart.

(non occ.) After having narrated the parable concerning the coming forth of the fruit from the seed of the Gospel, he here subjoins another parable, to show the excellence of the doctrine of the Gospel before all other doctrines. Wherefore it is said, And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God?

I know quite well that, to you as to me, the Church which once felt like a refuge, now often feels like a trap. There is nowhere else to go! (I wonder if this desperate feeling, the last state of loyalty hanging on, was not, even more often than is actually recorded in the Gospels, felt by Our Lord's followers in His earthly life-time?) I think there is nothing to do but to pray, for the Church, the Vicar of Christ, and for ourselves; and meanwhile to exercise the virtue of loyalty, which indeed only becomes a virtue when one is under pressure to desert it...

The 'protestant' search backwards for 'simplicity' and directness - which, of course, though it contains some good or at least intelligible motives, is mistaken and indeed vain. Because 'primitive Christianity' is now and in spite of all 'research' will ever remain largely unknown; because 'primitiveness' is no guarantee of value, and is and was in great part a reflection of ignorance. Grave abuses were as much an element in Christian 'liturgical' behaviour from the beginning as now. (St Paul's strictures on eucharistic behaviour are sufficient to show this!)

Still more because 'my church' was not intended by Our Lord to be static or remain in perpetual childhood; but to be a living organism (likened to a plant), which develops and changes in externals by the interaction of its bequeathed divine life and history - the particular circumstances of the world into which it is set. There is no resemblance between the 'mustard-seed' and the full-grown tree. For those living in the days of its branching growth the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is pan of its life, and the history of a divine thing is sacred.

The wise may know that it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree. Very good: but in husbandry the authorities, the keepers of the Tree, must look after it, according to such wisdom as they possess, prune it, remove cankers, rid it of parasites, and so forth. (With trepidation, knowing how little their knowledge of growth is!) But they will certainly do harm, if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth of the plant when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils. The other motive (now so confused with the primitivist one, even in the mind of any one of the reformers): aggiornamento: bringing up to date: that has its own grave dangers, as has been apparent throughout history. With this 'ecumenicalness' has also become confused.