Ezekiel 17:22-24 / 2 Cor 5:6-10 / Mark 4:26-34
From the moment we came into this world, we embarked on a learning process.
We learn to recognize our parents and the people around us.
We learn how to get attention when we are in some kind of need.
We learn how to use the things around us for our benefit.
Life is a learning process and it is a lifelong learning.
And we go to school to acquire knowledge, and we get to understand more about people, about the world, and also about ourselves.
But no matter how much we learn and how much knowledge we acquire, there will always be something that we don't know or understand.
For example, we use our mobile phone so often, but we don't really know how it works.
We ride on vehicles like cars, and trains and airplanes, but we don't know how they work.
We hear an amplified voice of a person at a distance, and we don't know how a microphone or a sound system works.
But, we don't have to ask all those questions when those things work, and there are no problems.
We will only ask questions when things don't work, and when it becomes an inconvenience or a problem for us.
In the gospel parable, we hear of a man who throws seeds on the land.
Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the sea is sprouting and growing. How, he does not know.
But of its own accord, the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain of the ear.
And when the crop is ready, he loses no time. He starts to reap because the harvest has come.
All that sounds like nature's manufacturing process, and the results are expected.
But there are five words that call out for our attention and reflection.
Those five words are: How, he does not know. Those five words reveal the limitation of human knowledge and understanding.
And those five words reveal the wonders and the marvels of the mystery and the power of God.
Yes, it is God who creates, who gives life, who brings about growth.
And human knowledge and understanding cannot fully grasp the mind of God and His ways.
In the 1st reading, the Lord God has this to say: Every tree of the field will learn that I, the Lord, am the One who stunts tall trees and makes the little ones grow, who withers green trees and makes the withered green.
Indeed, who can fully understand the mysterious ways and the power of God.
But we know that the Lord God looks with favour on the lowly and humble, and those who put their faith and trust in Him.
On the side altars of our Lady and St. Joseph, there are more than 5,000 petitions gathered from the triduum and feastday celebrations.
We do not know how God is going to answer those prayer petitions, but we do know that God will answer them.
There are many things about life, about people, about the world, and about ourselves, that we do not know or understand.
And when we are faced with trials and tribulations, and we do not have the solution, let us say the “I don't know” prayer.
Let us come before the Lord with our struggles and troubles, and humbly say that we don't know how to handle the situation.
We just have to say: Lord, I don't know, but You know.
Yes, the Lord knows, and He will show us the wonder and the marvel of His knowledge and His power.