Sunday Meditation: Jesus the Divine Farmer

For the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year A, Jesus continues His Parables Discourse.  Last Sunday He spoke of the Parable of the Sower.  Today he gives three parables, two continuing with the agricultural motif, and the third using the fruits of the produce to bake bread.  In a sense, these three are interrelated.  First is the parable of the Weeds among the Wheat, second the Parable of the Mustard Seed that grows into a huge tree, and third the Parable of the Leaven that makes the flower from the wheat grow.  All three parables begin with “The Kingdom of Heaven can be compared with…”  So in the first, the wheat must persevere over the weeds.  In the second, in persevering the seed grows to its glory.  In the third, the fruit from the perseverance, the flower, expands into the bread of life, and even, after consecration, the Eucharist.

The first parable is perhaps the most difficult to fathom.  Why would a farmer allow weeds to grow?  He wouldn’t, and that perhaps could be the illogical twist of this parable that Jesus often plants (excuse the pun!) in His parables.  However, I am told there was a particular weed that looked identical to the wheat, and one couldn’t tell until harvest.  If that is so, then the parable is more straight forward but I still think the twist is the point.

As some have pointed out, this parable explains Salvation History.  Evil is allowed to grow alongside the good.    If one follows the analogy, God does not want to disturb the good by destroying the evil.  But then, how many people are all good and how many people are all evil?  Not many, so then as others point out, the parable speaks to the good “wheat” and the bad “weeds” in our hearts.  We contain both, and with patience God is allowing our good to persevere over our bad.

And so, the Kingdom of God is within us!

 

 

 

 

Today’s Gospel:

 

 

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:

"The kingdom of heaven may be likened

to a man who sowed good seed in his field.

While everyone was asleep his enemy came

and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.

When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.

The slaves of the householder came to him and said,

'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

Where have the weeds come from?'

He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'

His slaves said to him,

'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'

He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds

you might uproot the wheat along with them.

Let them grow together until harvest;

then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,

"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;

but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

 

He proposed another parable to them.

"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed

that a person took and sowed in a field.

It is the smallest of all the seeds,

yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.

It becomes a large bush,

and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

 

He spoke to them another parable.

"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast

that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour

until the whole batch was leavened."

 

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.

He spoke to them only in parables,

to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,

I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation

of the world.

 

Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house.

His disciples approached him and said,

"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."

He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,

the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom.

The weeds are the children of the evil one,

and the enemy who sows them is the devil.

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,

so will it be at the end of the age.

The Son of Man will send his angels,

and they will collect out of his kingdom

all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.

They will throw them into the fiery furnace,

where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.

Then the righteous will shine like the sun

in the kingdom of their Father.

Whoever has ears ought to hear."

~Mt: 13:24-43

 

Here is someone new to my embedded homilies.  Deacon Malcolm Louis Concessao O.P. from St. Charles Seminary in Nagpur, India.  The seminary is run by Dominicans, and Dn. Malcolm has an “O.P.” at the end of his name which is dear to my heart.  I thought highly of this preaching.

 

Dn. Malcolm:

Dear brothers and sisters, there is something about God that often confuses us. We know that he is all powerful, all knowing, and perfectly just. Yet, when we look at the world, we ask, why does God allow evil to exist?  Why do the wicked seem to flourish while the innocent suffer? Why does God not remove sin immediately?  These are not new questions. They are as old as humanity itself.  Today's readings invite us [music] to look beyond appearances and discover the mysterious wisdom of God. The book of wisdom gives us a remarkable insight into the heart of God. It says, "Though you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness and with great forbearance you govern us."

 

Human beings often associate power with domination. The more powerful a person is, the more they tend to control others.  God reveals a completely different kind of power. His only potence is not expressed first through punishment but through mercy. Because he is infinitely powerful. He does not need to prove his strength.  Instead, he patiently waits for sinners to return to him. As the sacred author says, "You have given your children good ground for hope because you permit repentance for their sins." Wisdom 12 19.

 

This divine patience becomes even clearer in the gospel. Jesus tells the parable of a farmer who sows good seeds sin his field.  During the night, an enemy comes and sws weeds among the wheat. When the servants discover them, they immediately ask, "Do you want us to go and gather them?" Their reaction is understandable.  We want evil removed immediately. We want justice now.  But the master's answer [music] surprises us. He says, "No, for in gathering the weeds, you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest."  At first, this seems strange. [music] Why allow the weeds to remain? The answer reveals the heart of God. The master is not indifferent to evil.  Rather, he sees something that the servants cannot see. Wheat and weeds look remarkably similar in their early stages. If the servants act too quickly, they may destroy the very crop they hope to protect.  This parable is not simply about good people and bad people. It is about every human heart. Within each one of us there is wheat and there are [music] weeds.  There is generosity and selfishness.  There is faith and doubt, love and pride. If God judged us only by our weakest moments, none of us would stand before him. Yet he patiently continues his work within us. This is where St. John of the Cross offers a profound insight. He teaches that God transforms the soul gradually through purification.  God does not destroy the soul.  He removes everything that prevents it from loving him perfectly.  God patiently uproots the hidden weeds of attachment, pride, self-reliance, and disordered desires so that the wheat of divine love mature.

 

Often we become discouraged because we still discover weaknesses within ourselves. We expect instant holiness. But God works as a farmer, not as a mechanic. A mechanic repairs a machine in a few hours. A farmer cannot force wheat to grow overnight. Growth requires time, seasons, [music] rain, sunlight, and patient care. So it is with the spiritual life.  God's grace works quietly, often invisibly deep within the soul. Jesus continues with two short parables, my friends, the mustard seed and the yeast.

God works as a farmer, not as a mechanic!  That is so profound and worth remembering.

For the pastoral homily I’m going to go to the chief honcho himself, Pope Leo XIV.  In today’s Angelus, the Holy Father opened my eyes in his explanation of this Gospel.  The video will be filtered through Catholic Snack with their commentary, but the quotes will come from the Holy See’s posting of the sermon.

 

 

Pope Leo XIV:

These three short parables recall the coming of the Kingdom of God in history, its action in human lives, and the way it grows, expands and transforms the world from within.Through these images, Jesus warns us against the temptation of thinking that God is a powerful figure who imposes himself by force, who takes over and dominates, or who arrives triumphantly. Instead, God favors smallness, a sign of his discreet love, by which he leaves us free to accept or reject him. His love makes its presence felt even among the weeds, acts in a hidden and invisible way like the smallest of all seeds, and leavens the dough without making a sound.

 

Brothers and sisters, through these parables, Jesus reveals something important about the manner in which God works in our lives and in history. We sometimes expect God to do something spectacular; we want him to intervene from on high, immediately uprooting the weeds of evil. We imagine a strong and powerful God, and, unfortunately, we also model our way of being Christians and way of being the Church on this image. However, the Kingdom of God spreads even amidst the weeds, requiring us to train our vision so we can discern the good that sprouts despite the darkness of evil, and avoiding rash judgments. It comes like the smallest of seeds and thus calls for patience in accompanying these processes, so that we can recognize it in the little things of daily life and in the simplicity of ordinary existence. It grows invisibly like yeast in flour, and so we are freed from discouragement and invited to have faith even when it seems that God is absent. In fact, he is always with us, and his love is always ready to help us.

 

God’s way of acting must also become the way in which we live, both as individuals and as the Church, amidst the reality that surrounds us. We are called to adopt a Gospel-centered approach, without hastily opposing others through arrogant judgments, without imposing ourselves through power and force, and without losing trust in God’s work. As the then-Cardinal Ratzinger said, it is a matter of submitting ourselves to the logic of the seed — which is not that of success and greatness, but that of making ourselves small and serving others (cf. Address to Catechists and Religion Teachers, 10 December 2000). In this way, we will become like small seeds of the Gospel that sprout, and leavens of love that transform the dough of the world.

If we are to be channels for God to work through, we must “adopt a Gospel-centered approach, without hastily opposing others through arrogant judgments, without imposing ourselves through power and force, and without losing trust in God’s work.”  The Kingdom of God “spreads even among the weeds”!

 

 

Sunday Meditation: “I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.”

 

 

Finally, the hymn for today will be “As Grains of Wheat” by Laurence Rosania. 

 

As grains of wheat are gathered

we come together from lives apart.

We bring our hearts to make one whole.

For many are we and broken we come.

But we shall become one.

 

Each grain must fall and give itself.

It first is broken, then joined with others,

makes one body and one bread.

For many are we and broken we come.

But we shall become one.