Saturday of 16th Week in Ordinary Time
THE WHEAT AND THE WEEDS
Jeremiah decries the people’s attachment to false securities: the temple, their religious practices. For their attitude in life does not correspond to the lip service that they give to God. They do not seek God, for they are unjust to their brothers and sisters, oppress and exploit them. Their formalism will not save them. Neither will the false securities of formalistic religion save us.
All around us, but in our hearts as well, weeds are growing together with the wheat – the bad with the good. This is life, and it is not easy to take. We see first of all the weeds growing in the garden of our neighbor, and we want him to pull them out. But we should look into our own hearts as well. What to do? To pluck out the bad as best as we can. And not to be upset that, after all, we are not entirely good. We have to live with it in faith and hope and leave it all in the hands of God.
First Reading – Jeremiah 7:1-11
The Message from God to Jeremiah: “Stand in the gate of God’s Temple and preach this Message. “Say, ‘Listen, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship God. God-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, has this to say to you: “‘Clean up your act—the way you live, the things you do—so I can make my home with you in this place. Don’t for a minute believe the lies being spoken here—“This is God’s Temple, God’s Temple, God’s Temple!” Total nonsense! Only if you clean up your act (the way you live, the things you do), only if you do a total spring cleaning on the way you live and treat your neighbors, only if you quit exploiting the street people and orphans and widows, no longer taking advantage of innocent people on this very site and no longer destroying your souls by using this Temple as a front for other gods—only then will I move into your neighborhood. Only then will this country I gave your ancestors be my permanent home, my Temple. “‘Get smart! Your leaders are handing you a pack of lies, and you’re swallowing them! Use your heads! Do you think you can rob and murder, have sex with the neighborhood wives, tell lies nonstop, worship the local gods, and buy every novel religious commodity on the market—and then march into this Temple, set apart for my worship, and say, “We’re safe!” thinking that the place itself gives you a license to go on with all this outrageous sacrilege? A cave full of criminals! Do you think you can turn this Temple, set apart for my worship, into something like that? Well, think again. I’ve got eyes in my head. I can see what’s going on.’” God’s Decree!
Gospel – Matthew 13:24-30
He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too. “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’ “He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’ “He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
Prayer
Lord our God, you know it:
our hearts are divided,
torn between good and evil.
Give us clear eyes to look
into our own hearts
rather than in those of our neighbor
and to accept that we are not as good
as we like to be.
Make us grow up to become more like him
who was your perfect image and our model,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Reflection
23 July 2022
Matthew 13:24-30
Patience, hope and mercy
Today the Gospel speaks of two contrasting attitudes – annoyance and irritation of man and the patience of God. In the parable of the weeds and wheat, the servants of the land owner want to act in haste and are impatient while the land owner is willing to wait patiently. Indeed, through the face of the patient land owner Jesus reveals the image of God, who waits patiently.
We often act in great hurry to judge, to categorize, to segregate the good here, and the bad there…. Remember the prayer of that self-righteous Pharisee: “God, I thank you that I am good, that I am not like other men, malicious” (cf. Lk 18:11-12).
Pope Francis explains the parable and says, “God knows how to wait. With patience and mercy, he gazes into the “field” of life of every person; he sees much better than we do the filth and the evil, but he also sees the seeds of good and waits with trust for them to grow. God is patient, he knows how to wait. This is so beautiful: our God is a patient father, who always waits for us and waits with his merciful heart to welcome us, to forgive us. He always forgives us if we go to him.”
The field owner’s attitude is that of hope, grounded in the certainty that evil has neither the first nor the last word. And it is thanks to this patient hope of God that helps us to grow up, although with malicious heart with so many sins, in the end can become good grain. But be careful: evangelical patience is not indifference to evil; one must not confuse good and evil! While facing the evils in the world, we are called to imitate the patience of God, and to trust in the final victory of good, that is of God.
There is no one who is totally evil and totally bad. In spite of all the evil behaviours, there is something good in all of us. The bad behaviours in us are the weeds, tricked by the evil in our lives. But the patient and loving God would allow us to grow with the hope of nurturing and bringing into maturity those good seeds in each of us. The weeds of all the wrong attitudes and behaviours will be burned in the fire of God’s love and forgiveness. The good will overcome the evil and in God’s mercy, our purified self will reach him.
Let us ask Our Lady, Our Mother, to help us to grow in patience, in hope and in mercy with all brothers and sisters.