Today's Gospel is about how Jesus spoke to the people in parables and explained them later to his disciples. The parable used to demonstrate this is the one about faith being a mustard seed. Only a little bit of faith can support many things.
The deacon's (to be ordained as a priest in two weeks) homily was great! He gave his own sort of parable for us. As an embryo, a child's heart cells quickly differentiate themselves as something different than the cells around them. They vibrate and move around until they meet another vibrating cell. Slowly, these cells find and latch on to one another, forming the human heart by gaining one cell at a time. He said that this is us as a Church and faith. Something within us vibrates and we seek out others like us, eventually forming the heart of the Church. I haven't fact-checked him, but I love the metaphor.
We also got back in time to catch most of Bob Bain's excellent presentation. World history teachers need to be truffle-hunters, parachutists, and time lords ... and I need to remember that. I got several great ideas for some changes I want to make in my teaching.