In illud Simile est regnum caelorum grano sinapis

7. The same author, on the saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed." What is greater than the kingdom of heaven, and what is smaller than a grain of mustard seed? How did he compare the immeasurable kingdom of heaven to the easily measured and very tiny grain of mustard seed? But if we consider what the kingdom of heaven is, and what the grain of mustard seed is, we will find how well and aptly each has been compared to the other. What is the kingdom of heaven, if not Christ? For he says about himself: Behold, the kingdom of heaven is within you. And what is greater than Christ according to his divinity? As one can hear the prophet saying: This is our God; no other will be counted beside him. He discovered every path of knowledge, and gave it to Jacob his servant and to Israel his beloved. After this he appeared on earth and lived among men. Isaiah also speaks about him, using a voice of like mind. For what does he say? Egypt labored, and the merchandise of the Ethiopians, and the tall Sabaean men will cross over to you, and they will be your slaves, and they will follow behind you bound in handcuffs, and they will worship you, because in you is the Lord God, and there is no God besides you. For you are God, and we did not know, God of Israel the Savior. The blessed Peter also breaks forth with a voice having the same power, saying: Brothers; for there is no other name under heaven, he says, in which we must be saved. And what is smaller than Christ according to the economy of the incarnation, who has become smaller than both angels and men?

Listen to David saying how he became smaller than angels: "Who is the man that remembers him, or the son of man that visits him?" You diminished him a little compared to angels. That David says these things about Christ, Paul interprets for you, saying: "We see Jesus diminished a little compared to angels, because of the suffering of death." Thus he also became smaller than men. For what does Isaiah say? "We saw him, and he had neither form nor beauty, but his form was dishonored and deficient compared to all the sons of men." For this reason he also called himself a worm. For what does he say? "I am a worm and not a man." And in Isaiah the Father says to him: "Do not fear, worm of Jacob." Then, remembering his celebrated end, he said: "And your remnant is a worm." For it was necessary for him, like a wise fisherman, to put the worm of flesh around the flashing hook of divinity and let it down into the depth of this life, and thus to fish up the dragon, so that what is written in Job might truly be fulfilled: "Will you lead the dragon with a hook?" Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed. So someone among the hearers will say: How has the same one become both kingdom of heaven and a grain, both great and small in relation to himself? Because, through an excess of compassion for his own creation, he has become everything to everyone, in order to win everyone. He was God, as he is and will be by his own nature, and he became man for our salvation.

O the depth of wealth and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and how inscrutable his ways! O the grain through which a world has come to be, through which darkness has been scattered and the Church has been set in motion! This grain, hung upon the cross, possessed such a magnitude of power that, even while bound, by a word alone it snatched the thief from the wood and rolled him into the delight of paradise; this grain, pierced in the side by a spear, flowed forth a drink of immortality for those who thirst; this grain of mustard, brought down from the wood and placed in a garden, covered the whole subheavenly realm with its branches; this grain of mustard, placed in a garden, sent its roots into Hades, and seizing the souls there, conveyed them to heaven within three days; this grain of mustard, crushed upon the wood, stung and blinded our adversary the serpent, and, awakening Hades, turned it back to the place from which it had been left. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard, which a man took and sowed in his own garden. Sow this grain of mustard in the garden of your soul, so that you too may say: "Awake, north wind, and come, south wind, blow through my garden, and let my spices flow.

If you have this grain of mustard in the garden of your soul, the prophet will also say to you: "And it will be like a garden that is drunken, and like a spring whose water never fails." If you have this grain in the garden of your soul, and you partake of its ointment, it is said also to you: "The scent of your garments is like the scent of frankincense," that is, the scent of your fleshly garments is like the scent of frankincense. Your apostolates are a closed garden, a sealed spring. This grain of mustard, crushed on wood and having become leaven by the all-skilled and immortal wisdom, mixed into three measures of flour—that is, into soul, body, and spirit—leavened all humanity into one faith. Abraham and his consort Sarah, dwelling in the tent under the oak of Mamre, painted the image of this mystery with their own hands. For we are compelled, beloved, to digress in the discourse: who Abraham is, who Sarah is, what the oak is, what the tent is, or who the hearth-cakes are, why there are three measures of fine flour there and of flour here—it is necessary to go through the discourse with precision. Who would Abraham be? He is interpreted as "father elect of a multitude." And who would be the elect father, if not God? concerning whom, "His sound went out into all the earth, and his words to the ends of the world." And what is Sarah? She is interpreted as "ruler" and "governess." And who would be the one ruling and governing us, if not certainly the wisdom of the Father? Or what is the tent under the oak of Mamre? Certainly the Church sheltered by the cross. The cross has been likened to the oak because the wood is strong and unyielding.

What are the three measures of fine flour? They are, as I said before, humanity, which is composed of soul, spirit, and body. For the Apostle taught us thus, saying: "And God will guard your body, and your soul, and your spirit." The wisdom of God, therefore, takes Sarah, the leader or ruler; it takes body, soul, and spirit, and buries them in the fire, that is, bearing a torch with the inextinguishable divinity, and makes three hearth-cakes, that is, in the hidden part of our flesh, the confession into Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Gospel was read to you, beloved, in a fitting manner. A grain of mustard, and leaven: leaven is transformed into loaves, the grain into vegetables; and loaves and vegetables are provisions for fasts, to which Jesus the Lord might lead us blamelessly, fulfilling the course of fasting. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard. We will not be able to understand the power of the parable in any other way unless we first consider its substance, color, and size. For mustard is small in size, but when sown and grown, it surpasses every growth of vegetables, excelling in height, and overcoming others in the number of its branches, and in the abundance of its leaves; for it is productive of shade, so that even birds flying over can alight upon it and rest.

It is also very good in taste, and warming in quality, and healing of internal ailments. It becomes food for no other bird, but only for man. And on the outside it is reddish, but on the inside it appears white. Such is the nature of this plant, and this is the praise of its seed. But if we wish to examine it with precision, we would find that the parable applies to the Savior himself. For he is the one small in appearance; he is the one lowly in the world, yet great in heaven; he is both son of man and God, being son of God; he is the countless one, the eternal one; he is the invisible one, the heavenly one, the one eaten only by faithful men; he is the one crushed, and after the passion becoming white as milk; he is the one greater than all other plants; he is the undivided Word of the Father; he is the one in whom the birds of the heaven nest, that is, prophets and apostles and all the called; he is the one who purifies the passions of the soul through his own heat, by whom we are refreshed, by whom we are sheltered from the cosmic heat; he is the one sown into the earth through death, and there bearing fruit, raising the saints on the third day from the burial of the dead; he is the one who through resurrection appears greater than any prophet; he is the one who saves all things by the outflow of the Father; he is the one who blossomed from earth into the heavens, the one sown in his own field, the one in the world and leading those who believe in him to the Father. O seed of life sown into the earth by God the Father! O plant of immortality, reconciling those nourished by you to God! O high tree, cultivated by the Father alone!

This tree sprang from the paternal heart; this plant has its roots in the heavens, but having appeared in the world, it is plucked by men. O planting seen on earth and blossoming into the heavens! O seed seen as small, but with the Father greater than all! This plant also rose for the dead in Hades; its fruit has become the resurrection of men; it brought down a death-dealing arrow against death; by it the walls of Tartarus, bending an unbending knee, did homage; its branches have sheltered the whole world; it is moved by the Holy Spirit; no burning heat touches it; under this plant rejoice and dance with the angels, glorifying the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and always, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.