Opening Prayer

Patient God,
curb our impatience when we try to impose
your truth and justice and peace
on a world and even a Church
not yet disposed to welcome them.
In our helplessness and discouragement
may we come to accept
that all true growth comes from you.
We can only plant the seed:
make it bloom into a mighty tree that shelters many.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading Introduction:
        The adultery of David with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah underline that sin is very much a part of our human history; and Christ, descendant of David and Bathsheba, will save in his humanity our humanity entangled in sin. But where sin is abundant, the grace and life of Christ are even more abundant.

First Reading: 2 Sm 11:1–4a, 5–10a, 13–17

At the turn of the year, when kings go out on campaign, David
sent out Joab along with his officers and the army of Israel,
and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. David,
however, remained in Jerusalem. One evening David rose from
his siesta and strolled about on the roof of the palace. From
the roof he saw a woman bathing, who was very beautiful.
David had inquiries made about the woman and was told, “She
is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam, and wife of Joab’s armor
bearer Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers and took
her. When she came to him, he had relations with her. She then
returned to her house. But the woman had conceived, and sent
the information to David, “I am with child.”

David therefore sent a message to Joab, “Send me Uriah
the Hittite.” So Joab sent Uriah to David. When he came, David
questioned him about Joab, the soldiers, and how the war was
going, and Uriah answered that all was well. David then said
to Uriah, “Go down to your house and bathe your feet.” Uriah
left the palace, and a portion was sent out after him from the
king’s table. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the royal palace
with the other officers of his lord, and did not go down to his
own house. David was told that Uriah had not gone home. On
the day following, David summoned him, and he ate and drank
with David, who made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah
went out to sleep on his bed among his lord’s servants, and did
not go down to his home. The next morning David wrote a
letter to Joab which he sent by Uriah. In it he directed: “Place
Uriah up front, where the fighting is fierce. Then pull back and
leave him to be struck down dead.” So while Joab was besieging
the city, he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew the
defenders were strong. When the men of the city made a sortie
against Joab, some officers of David’s army fell, and among
them Uriah the Hittite died.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 51:3 – 4, 5 – 6a, 6bcd –7, 10 –11

R/  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;
in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.
Thoroughly wash me from my guilt
and of my sin cleanse me.
R/  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

For I acknowledge my offense,
and my sin is before me always:
“Against you only have I sinned,
and done what is evil in your sight.”
R/  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

I have done such evil in your sight
that you are just in your sentence,
blameless when you condemn.
True, I was born guilty,
a sinner, even as my mother conceived me.
R/  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Let me hear the sounds of joy and gladness;
the bones you have crushed shall rejoice.
Turn away your face from my sins,
and blot out all my guilt.
R/  Be merciful, O Lord, for we have sinned.

Gospel Introduction:
       The kingdom of God does not irrupt in our human world with extraordinary signs and power. It is a patient, modest growth, beginning with a tiny seed in the personal salvation history of every person, in the salvation history of humankind. It is constantly threatened by sin, which is the refusal to grow.

Gospel Reading: Mk 4:26 –34

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom
of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and
would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout
and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields
fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the
harvest has come.”

He said, “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God,
or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that,
when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds
on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the
largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds
of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he
spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.
Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own
disciples he explained everything in private.