What are you attached to?
It is a simple question.
But it reveals a great deal about our hearts.
Today God gives Jeremiah one of the strangest actions in the whole Bible.
He tells him to buy a linen loincloth.
To wear it.
To keep it close to himself.
Then, after some time, he is told to hide it in a crack in the rocks.
When he returns, it has rotted away.
It is ruined.
Good for nothing.
Why?
Because it had been separated from the one who wore it.
God explains the meaning.
“As the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel… that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory.”
God did not create Israel simply to obey rules.
He created them to belong to Him.
To cling to Him.
To remain close to Him.
Instead they clung to idols.
To wealth.
To power.
To themselves.
Separated from God, they lost the purpose for which they had been made.
The same danger exists for us.
Every one of us clings to something.
Our career.
Our possessions.
Our reputation.
Our plans.
Our comfort.
Our fears.
The question is not whether we are attached.
The question is whether we are attached to the right thing.
Because whatever we cling to will shape our lives.
That is why today’s Gospel is so hopeful.
Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed.
It is tiny.
Almost insignificant.
Yet it grows into a great tree.
He compares it to leaven hidden in flour.
Invisible.
Quiet.
Almost unnoticed.
Yet slowly it transforms the whole batch of dough.
Notice how God’s Kingdom works.
Not with noise.
Not with spectacle.
Not by force.
But quietly.
Patiently.
From within.
That is often how God works in us.
We want instant holiness.
Instant answers.
Instant change.
God usually works differently.
One prayer.
One act of charity.
One Confession.
One Holy Communion.
One act of forgiveness.
They may seem small.
But grace grows.
Little by little.
Day by day.
Year by year.
The saints were not made in a moment.
They were transformed by thousands of small acts of fidelity.
There is another lesson here.
The mustard seed does not try to become a great tree overnight.
The yeast does not transform the dough in a single second.
Growth takes time.
That is why we should never become discouraged.
Sometimes we wonder why we still struggle with the same faults.
Why we still find prayer difficult.
Why holiness seems so far away.
Jesus tells us:
Keep growing.
Remain close to Him.
Trust His grace.
The Kingdom is already at work, even when we cannot yet see all its fruits.
The two readings belong together beautifully.
Jeremiah teaches us to remain close to God.
Jesus teaches us what God can do with a life that remains close to Him.
A life attached to Christ will grow.
Perhaps slowly.
Perhaps quietly.
But certainly.
And one day it will bear fruit beyond anything we could have imagined.
Every time we come to Mass, God draws us close once more.
Like that linen garment, we are made to cling to Him.
In the Holy Eucharist we receive not merely His gifts, but Christ Himself.
There is no closer union possible on this earth.
If we remain close to Him, His life will become our life.
His strength will become our strength.
His holiness will slowly become our holiness.
So today let us ask for one simple grace:
To cling to Christ above everything else.
For when we remain close to Him, even the smallest seed of grace can grow into the life of a saint.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 