Here is today’s Gospel reading, from St Luke: ‘He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”’

These parables speak of the kingdom of God as essentially hidden. As St Paul would later say, ‘You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God’. We are hidden in Him, and He is hidden in us. But it is not hidden in such a way as to be sealed off; rather, it grows and spreads – to give shelter to others, to provide essential nourishment for them.

May God bless each one of us, and may His life grow and spread in us.