Reading the parables of the Kingdom today in front of the Blessed Sacrament, I was struck by the parable of the Kingdom compared to leaven. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened (Mt 13:33).” The Lord showed me the meaning of the leaven and the meaning of unleavened, in this context, and the significance of unleavened bread in the Eucharist and in the old covenant.

Before God, in our broken humanity we are the shadows of what we are to become. A living shadow being transformed into a full bodied 3 dimensional person is not even an adequate analogy of what we are become when we enter the glory of God as divinized persons - with resurrected bodies. We are presently "unleavened" shadows of what God has planned for us. We have nothing to offer to God but our desire for Him, our desire to become what we are created to be - to see His face.  In the process of spiritual transformation, the Spirit of God leavens us - threefold. This process is hidden in Romans 12:1-2. "I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world^[a] but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. The first leavening is of the body, that it would become conformed to Christ as a living sacrifice, purified of all sin ("everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure" 1 Jn 3:3.) .  The second leavening is of the mind, which is to be transformed so that we can see reality through the eyes of the Father - the spiritual gift of Wisdom. The third leavening is of the heart, which is to be transformed by the Love of the Holy Spirit, the perfect and acceptable will of God

All of these 3 measures of meal are leavened together and kneaded into one batch of dough. The 3 leavenings work together and cannot be separated, patterned on the unity of the Trinity. Notice how the leaven works in the dough, it penetrates every part of it until the whole batch is leavened. Jesus want's to give us life in abundance in every corner. Let no corner of life be untouched by transforming grace, so that you may be truly transformed. This is a life which perpetually lives in the Divine Will. Let's pray for one another that we can co-operate in this process.