“Whoever has ears ought to hear.” Some of us may have hearing issues. We may not hear half of what we used to. Or half of what we want to. In baseball we used to call a few umpires who heard every word from the players bench, especially the bad stuff, “rabbit ears.” He heard everything and enjoyed throwing coaches and players out of the game if he heard something he didn’t like. Jesus is basically telling us to be like that umpire by way of hearing; have rabbit ears for the kingdom of heaven. Hear all that the Lord is saying about it, and respond to it in word and deed. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” Hear what? The challenges and responsibilities that accompany our presence in the kingdom of God which stands among us in the present. When pondering the Lord’s kingdom, the true balance and full truth of his kingdom is to understand it in a two-fold way; that it is now, before us, within us, following us around like a hungry dog as we carry their food. And, that the kingdom in its fulfillment is a future condition for our souls and bodies, where the glory of God will enrapture us in life eternal. Some believers tend to emphasize one end of the kingdom over the other end. They focus so much on the good works of now that they have no vision of the future prize. Or, they have a vision of the future prize without practicing the importance of what it takes to get there; faith and good works. An overemphasis on either will create an imbalance in our spiritual lives. For those who have ears to hear, we build up God’s kingdom through his ever-present grace by faith and good works, making our world a better place and not a worse place, while yearning for eternal life with those we love. That combination hears Jesus loud and clear. The parables our Lord uses when speaking to the crowds reveal this 2-fold approach to our faith. In the famous parable of the wheat and the weeds, we recall that, in our Baptism, we have been sown in Christ. Therefore, we are wheat. We can only become weeds by outwardly and openly rejecting our faith in Christ. The goal of our wheat is to be stored into God’s barn. As we grow taller and older, or shorter and older, the barn gets closer and closer. Its’ seems like God’s barn is walking toward us to secure our place within. That’s the future element of this parable. The present element, the now part, is seeing ourselves as God’s wheat, and making an impression on weeds that they convert to wheat. That’s also called being a Saint. The weeds that end up in the bundles for burning, many of them didn’t have some wheat in their lives to lead them to the love and goodness of Christ. If they did, many of those weeds would convert to wheat. That’s how the power of love and mercy operate. That even the worst weed can be saved into the barn. The one crucified next to Jesus is the Scriptural proof of this; “Today, you will be with me in my barn in paradise.” The mustard seed has a greater focus on the present kingdom; to grow in the Lord and not in the culture of this world, because here we have no lasting home. To grow into adults who will share and defend our faith, and not grow cold or complacent with it. The mustard seed parable attends to being pruned, cut, sliced and diced, formed and shaped into letting God lead. That’s what good Christian parents do; they slice and dice, form and shape, they prune their children to be servants of the Most High, leading them to full growth. And the yeast parable, the bakery parable, is similar to the mustard seed in its growth. But the yeast symbolizes the Christian virtues, making the wheat the best tasting bread, and not some, green piece of whatever you want to call it. “Yuk!” That’s our life without the yeast of Christ; “Yuk!” The future part of this parable is the great paradox of Christianity; that when the wheat is fully baked with the yeast within, we reach our perfection through the doors of death. If anyone one of us is presently watching (slowly) a loved one going through the dying process, we’re watching their yeast within the wheat grow to perfection. When I looked on the face of my friend Fr. Bob Bruso last week as he lay in his casket, I saw him as never looking so good, knowing he was now looking on the face of God. That’s the yeast and wheat fully baked. “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” The parables of Jesus call us to the kingdom now and in the future. To live in his kingdom now is a world of both messiness and beauty, while preparing to be stored in his barn after our days here are complete.