There is a popular expression: “playing both ends against the middle.” In modern usage it means to manipulate two opposing sides of an argument, conflict, competition, etc., against one another for one’s own benefit or advantage. The expression seems to have arsien from a method of cheating at the card game faro. In a twist on the old adage, today’s first reading seems to be playing the middle against both ends. Continue reading
This coming Sunday is the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Mark alone records the parable of the “Seed that Grows Itself”: 26 He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27 and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” Continue reading
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