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.
