MEDITATION TIPS (N272)
— 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
October 5, 2025

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed...” (Luke 17:6)

　A mustard seed is so small that it is hardly noticeable, and Jesus also used its great vitality as a parable for the Kingdom of God (Luke 13:18-19, etc.). For us, this mustard seed with its great vitality can be likened to the ordinariness of daily life. A great power is hidden precisely within daily life, which seems so common at first glance. It is an extraordinary deed to perfect the ordinary.

　The Belgian author Maurice Maeterlinck wrote the fairy tale “The Blue Bird.” In Japanese, the Blue Bird is understood as “happiness,” but Maeterlinck did not specifically define it as such. The Blue Bird is whatever is most important to each reader—love, joy, hope, truth, peace, and today’s theme, faith.

　Tyltyl and Mytyl, a brother and sister from a poor family, had no Christmas tree and watched with envy as their wealthy neighbors celebrated Christmas. An unknown old woman came to them and said her grandchild was sick and looking for the Blue Bird, which brings happiness, and asked if they had one. When Tyltyl answered that they only had a white bird, she asked them to look for the Blue Bird and put a hat with a diamond on his head. When he turned the diamond, many fairies of light appeared, and their adventure to find the Blue Bird began.

　Guided by the fairies, they journeyed through the Land of Memory, the Land of Night, and the Forest Kingdom finding blue birds only to have them change color or die, never truly finding the blue bird they sought. Finally, they found the Blue Bird in the Land of the Future, but the “Keeper of Time” discovered them and chased them away. The fairies said their journey was over since they had found the Blue Bird. However, the bird had turned red. The fairies of light said, “The real Blue Bird must be somewhere else,” and left.

　They eventually woke up to their mother’s voice, who said, “Why are you two still sleeping? Today is Christmas!” At that moment, the old woman appeared and said her sick grandchild wanted to see their bird and asked to borrow it. Lo and behold, the white bird had turned blue. Eventually, the old woman and the child said the illness was cured thanks to the Blue Bird, and came together to return it. Tyltyl and Mytyl were surprised that the child looked just like one of the fairies of light. But when the child returned the birdcage to Tyltyl, the door opened, and the Blue Bird flew into the sky. Tyltyl said to the disappointed child, “That is the Blue Bird we were looking for. We went so far to look for it, but it was always here with us,” and the fairy tale ends with these words.

　“The good deposit entrusted to you” (2 Timothy 1:14)—things like love, joy, hope, truth, peace, and faith—are right at our feet, in the ordinariness of daily life. The “Blue Bird,” along with the Bible, tells us that these things are not something we have to desperately search for. We can find them right away when we “have done what we ought to have done” (Luke 17:10) in our daily lives—that is, when we do our ordinary work and service with love and gratitude.

 　　　　　(Contributed by Father Yutaka Akabae)