Expert: J.M.J. West - 11/7/2008

Question
when Christ tells the parable of the mustard seed what in the world is he talking about? can you interpret it for me? a Gardner plants it among other vegetation in his garden, the mustard seed is a small seed that grows to be a large tree, and birds come rest in it's branches!??!?! And that's what heaven is like?

Answer
This is what the Church is like, and what our faith life is like with God.  (Heaven is complete communion with God, through participation in the Body of Christ, which is the Church; and of which Christ is the head).

The Church started out small, and has grown from those 12 apostles and brethren gathered in the upper room at Pentecost upon whom the holy spirit descended, to a church which encompasses 1/3 of the world in some fasion (of 6.5 billion people, 1.2 billion are Catholics, .6 billion Protestant and .3 billion Eastern Orthodox, making roughly 2.2 billion Christians).

(Your numbers may vary, cf:  http://www.adherents.com/Religions_By_Adherents.html)

The church today - the Catholic Church - is in some ways vastly different from the initial church.  It is HUGE, spanning many races, cultures and nations.  Yet it is still identical with that Mustard Seed Church of the 1st century, and you can see it grow each century from then.  That first church called itself Catholic, and believed things like Apostolic Succession and the primacy of the Bishop of Rome (where Peter's see settled); the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist; the regenerative and necessary nature of baptism; etc.  You can see it grow and change just as a mustard seed grows and changes, but even when it becomes a huge plant it is still self-same with that seed from which it came.

That is not to say that some branches haven't fallen off (i.e. the Orthodox and Protestant Factions, though there is hope that they might yet be re-grafted).

See also: http://www.scripturecatholic.com/history.html

Hope that helps!

Pax Christi,

-J.M.J. West