It is a Joy for us to be together on this blessed feast of our Holy Father Dominic. It is a gift to celebrate the transfer of leadership within our Sparkill congregation as it connects us to the lineage of Dominic and the worldwide Order of Preachers, especially to the Dominican women of Prouille, the first foundation and monastery of the Order.
In Matthew’s Gospel, Chapter 17:14-20, we encounter Jesus healing a boy possessed by an evil spirit after his disciples tried to cast out the demon but could not. In his power and compassion, Jesus healed the child. Later, the disciples asked Jesus why they could not heal the boy. Jesus said to them, “Because of your little faith. Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move, and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
In Matthew 13:31-32, Jesus also preaches about the mustard seed; he likens it, the smallest of all seeds, to “The Kingdom of Heaven,” or the Reign of God. This seed, once sown in a field, grows into the biggest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air can come and shelter in its branches. Exploring these two mustard seed parables confirmed that, yes, the mustard seed is tiny. I also learned that the mustard plant is medicinal; it has a pungent taste and a fiery effect. The mustard plant is also an invasive weed that, once sown, cannot be stopped or removed (Pliny the Elder, Natural History, vol. 5, books 17-19), but grows where it will.
In the Give Us This Day Reflection on today’s readings (August 8, 2026), Professor Michael Okinczyc-Cruz, of Loyola Institute, focused on mustard seed faith. He shared that those listening directly to Jesus’s parable were, for the most part, farmers, day laborers working in vineyards and fields, people living close to the land. Jesus’s listeners knew about mustard seeds and what happened when these seeds took root and spread, the mustard shrubs spreading everywhere and eliminating other types of growth. Jesus’s followers most assuredly recognized the mustard seed as a symbol of “revolutionary faith” (Okinczyc-Cruz). Mustard seeds were not welcomed by the vineyard owners or farmers. According to Okinczyc-Cruz, Jesus’ audience would have understood his words as a challenge to the systems of power of that time. Okinczyc-Cruz wrote, “To have faith the size of a mustard seed means becoming disruptors of structures that produce poverty, violence and suffering.” The Reign of God, like a mustard seed, would change the status quo and create a divine order where land, labor, and housing are fundamental rights and where mustard seed faith boldly proclaims God’s mercy, love, and justice. Jesus said to his disciples, to us, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed…Nothing is impossible for you.” (Matthew 17:20)
We know that these parables and others caused problems for Jesus, problems that ultimately led to his death. The Jewish and Roman authorities of the time understood Jesus’ words and his vision of the Reign of God as a threat to their power, one they sought to eliminate.
Our founder, and brother Dominic, exemplifies mustard-seed faith; in fact, we may think of him, like Jesus, as God’s mustard seed. A star above his head, the vision at the time of his birth, identified him as a chosen one of God. As a young priest and scholar, he left his monastery and traveled on foot, without shoes, without silver or gold, to address a heresy and the resulting confusion, social upheaval, and suffering which had taken hold among the people of Southern France. Dominic embraced voluntary poverty and austerity, unlike the clergy of his environs, who flaunted their lavish lifestyles. Dominic embodied the Star of Christ as he confronted the Albigensian heresy, which declared all material creation, the physical world, to be evil, denied the Incarnation, encouraged extreme asceticism even to the point of suicide by starvation, and preached against procreation to avoid propagating flesh.
Dominic engaged the people where he found them, through patient discourse and the truth of the Scriptures. Dominic rejected all forms of violence. He was a living sign of the Christ, revealing the face of God, healing infirmities, preaching Oneness, Truth, compassion, and love. His preaching was in absolute contradiction to the dualistic, divisive, and uninformed teaching of the Albigensian heresy. Dominic had become the vision his mother had of her son before he was conceived, a dog who traveled far and wide with a torch in his mouth, setting the world on fire. Remember Luke 49, where Jesus says, “I have come to cast a fire upon the earth.” Like the tiny mustard seed, Dominic, one inspired soul, followed the path God intended: preaching the Gospel, healing the minds, hearts, and bodies of the suffering and vulnerable.
We, the Dominican Sisters and Associates of Sparkill, are descendants of Dominic de Guzman and his early followers. We are members of the worldwide Dominican Family. Dominic’s story is the beginning of our story, and our story connects us to our Dominican sisters and brothers throughout the world. During our 2026 Chapter, using the words of Fr. Gerard Timoner, Master of the Dominican Order, we proclaimed, and we celebrated, “We are preachers even when we are old or sick and could not anymore speak, we are preachers even when we are young and silenced by our shyness, we are preachers even when we are not ordained, etc. We incarnate preaching by our very lives. This is our mission. Our being.”
Today’s Gospel and the realities of our suffering, war-torn world call us to embody mustard seed faith, faith that may have been small or unfocused in its beginnings, but that has been germinating and taking root within us and aligns us as disciples of Christ alongside all who share our mission of truth and justice. Faith like a mustard seed is on fire with the truth of the Gospel; it knows the truth, and it cannot be silenced, controlled, or co-opted into allegiances not worthy of the Gospel. Faith like a mustard seed is relentless in proclaiming, in preaching the Reign of God.
Our Father Dominic taught us by his example how we might recognize and face into the “heresies” of our own day, those clever distortions, idolatries and lies that manipulate and separate rather than unite, that destroy God’s intention of Oneness among all people and Creation. Faith like a mustard seed calls us to use our spiritual power of prayer and our moral authority to raise our voices, to speak Truth. It calls us into situations that demand that we stand with and speak for our sisters and brothers who are suffering, who are victims of racism and injustice. Faith like a mustard seed invites mercy, compassion, and love into the world.
Sisters and brothers, I believe our mustard seed faith is coming to define us more and more. We are on the journey begun by Saint Dominic. We are joined in spirit by the first Dominican women of Prouille, by our own Alice Mary Thorpe, and our founding sisters. Our lives are full of God’s purpose, God’s power, and especially God’s love. The star seen above the head of our Holy Father Dominic is above our heads as well now, in this moment in time on earth. What does this mean for us? How are we to cast out the demons of our time? How are we to heal the divisions among us, to be the face of love and compassion for the world? How are we to embody the Kingdom of Heaven? It is our time now to hear Christ speaking, “If you have faith like a mustard seed…Nothing will be impossible for you”.
– Sister Irene Ellis, OP
Sister Irene Ellis, OP, is serving her second term as Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, having first been elected in 2022. Previously, she served on the Leadership Team for two terms. A former educator, she developed an infant-toddler program in the South Bronx. She loves animals, especially cats and dogs, and enjoys reading fiction.