Sue Jones is a lifelong Catholic from Napier who has been writing for Catholic publications like the Marist Messenger and NZ Catholic since the late 1980s. Using the simple, homely image of breadmaking, Sue invites us to pause and reflect on the quiet, faithful work that helps bring God’s kingdom to life in the world around us.
In a section of Matthew’s Gospel, under the heading Discourse of Parables, Jesus Christ speaks of the kingdom of heaven being like the woman who took three measures of flour and mixed it with yeast till it was leavened all through.
This parable speaks of feminine life being an integral part of bringing God’s kingdom into being. In typical style, Jesus takes something with a negative connotation in the Old Testament and puts a positive spin on it. The wise woman at the centre of the story works the dough.
The parable tells us that her hidden, unsung work at home can have a surprising effect in Christian communities. Jesus uses an ordinary, domestic setting to show us the extraordinary love needed to bring God’s kingdom to life. At the heart of this love life, making it work and making it holy, is the bread-maker, more than likely a mother.
Breadmaking, like many feminine crafts, gained a following during the COVID epidemic. Many women discovered that breadmaking is an art as well as a chore. Catholic lay life is like this too: for the most part, a chore we share with all humanity — the daily grind, a bit of a rat race, monotonous but necessary. As laypersons, we are to leaven this universal life.
A mother working dough soon learns that it is not easy to turn out a perfect loaf. Despite following a recipe, the bread does not always rise. And so she wonders, not so much about what she is doing wrong, but about what she is not attending to sufficiently.
In time, she learns that the dough has a life of its own, a power to be worked with, not against. Being impatient or failing to knead it enough often causes failure. Catholic life, lived actively for the coming of God’s kingdom, is like this too.
Jesus Christ learned about this sort of doughy life at Nazareth. That hidden life prepared him for the hardships of his public mission. One cannot imagine he plucked the story of yeast and flour out of thin air. Would he have said, “Take this bread and eat it, for this is my body,” if he had not experienced the hardships and sacrifices of his mother raising human, doughy situations up into the life of God?
When Catholic life fails to raise the dough of westernised life, even when we are working hard to mission and evangelise, we may wonder, like the bread maker, what it is we are not giving enough time and thought to.
The story of the flour, the yeast, and the woman reminds us to make time to contemplate the Person who gives us life. Our lovely God wants to be part of our missionary efforts and will bless them if we give God the time of day.
Women, especially mothers, are good at doing more than one thing at a time. The ability to act for God’s kingdom while contemplating God is a missionary art the world could do with a lot more of. A life that gives God the time of day whilst working the dough has the beauty of an artisanal loaf of bread. People want to eat it.
Please note: The reflections and opinions expressed in this piece are those of the author and are shared in the spirit of personal faith and contemplation. They do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Diocese of Palmerston North.