JULY 27, 2026 MSGR. DAVID REILANDER
The kingdom of Israel had been split in two. God did not find the kings of Israel to be appropriate leaders, and the people were not living as His family. And so, the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were formed.
The Israelites were not behaving well, and they were sent into exile. Now the kingdom of Judah was left, but Judah was not performing much better.
To the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord says, “Take your loincloth and bury it, and see what happens after a while.” Jeremiah digs it up again, and it is all rotted. The Lord is using this as an analogy for the people of Judah. As a loincloth, underwear, clings to our bodies, so Judah is meant to cling to the Lord. But instead, they have become rotten, and Jeremiah has been sent to warn them.
The Lord wants us to cling to Him and not forget Him, as we prayed in the Psalm. He wants His family to become very big. This is where, in the Gospel, we hear the parable of the mustard seed.
I never really understood this until I went to Israel and was shown a mustard seed. I wanted to take a picture of it so I could show children in school what it was like. The tour guide showed me a mustard bush, and it happened to be in season at the time. He took one of the seeds, and I asked, “Could you put it in your hand? I want to take a picture of it.”
So I focused my lens on his hand and said, “I can’t see it. Are you sure it’s in your hand?” He said, “Yes, it’s right here. Look.” It was so small that it did not show up in the picture, and yet it becomes a big bush. Something small becomes very big.
You take a bit of yeast, or leaven, and put it in flour and water, and the bread rises. In the same way, the family of God is meant to rise and become big. But the Lord is losing His family because the people are forgetting Him.
Today, we have to make sure that we do not forget the Lord. We may say, “Oh, I’m not going to forget the Lord,” but it often starts with small things, just like a mustard seed: white lies, growing lazy, or not making the Lord a priority.
Then it begins to grow and grow, perhaps even to the point of committing mortal sins, no longer thinking of the Lord, not going to Mass on Sunday, and failing to take that time to give praise and glory to Him.
So we need to pause. Here we are in the summertime, surrounded by beautiful weather and the fruits of the earth, but we still need to think of the Lord.
How am I being a missionary disciple of Christ? Am I remembering the Lord? Am I praying? Am I being mindful of how I am loving others and forgiving others? Am I remembering the poor?
Let us heed the words of Jeremiah. Let our souls not begin to rot. Instead, let us always, on a daily basis, on an hourly basis, and on a minute-by-minute basis, be conscious of the Lord.
That is what clinging to the Lord means. Every moment of the day belongs to Him, so that we can belong to Him.
