Cycle A - Year II:  

19 July 2020: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

(Liturgical Color: Green)

Readings:

First Reading:        Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

Second Reading:   Romans 8:26-27

Gospel:  Please Read  Matthew 13:24-43

"God waits patiently for us!"

Last Sunday we heard about parables and how our Lord Jesus Christ used them as effective tools to convey His message about the God's kingdom.  Parables represent a key part of the teaching of Jesus, forming approximately one third of His recorded preaching.  

On the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jesus continues to preach to His disciples about the kingdom of God through parables.  The Gospel reading tells us three of such parables this Sunday, but all with the same central theme.  Let us pick one and reflect on the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat.

The gist of this parable:

A farm owner sows good seed of wheat into his field.  At night time, his enemy comes and sows weeds all through the wheat.  So that when the crop begins to grow, the weeds grow as well.  The farm workers ask the farm owners if they should pull up the weeds.  The owner responds: "No, if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. So let them grow together until harvest."  That seems to be a wise decision.

How do we understand this parable?

The farm owner represents God Himself who sows only good seeds; but the weeds, or the presence of evil in our world, come from the heart of men and women who choose not to obey God. It's the devil trying to distract us from that what is God's.

Now, this Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat is meant to tell us of the patience of our heavenly Father towards us.  God allows the good and the bad seeds to co-exist.  And the sun and the rain fall on both the good seed and the bad seed.  But God constantly nourishes the good seed with an abundance of grace in order to let it grow health and strong, and bear fruits.

What valuable lesson then does this parable teach us?  Well, the message of the Gospel is that God's patience is really directed at our salvation.  God patiently awaits for the harvest, bearing even with slow growth but also making room for repentance.

So then our response to God's amazing patience and mercy should be a change of heart and a desire to change our lives and live completely for Christ.  We should be overwhelmed by God's merciful love and radically commit ourselves to seek His will in every aspect of our lives.  The first reading in Wisdom assures us: "But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us." (Wis 12:18)

In other words,  we should be willing to stand tall even among the weeds in our world and still produce abundant harvest of virtue, prayer, and charitable deeds, through our authentic Christian living and witnessing.  We must allow God's grace to work within each one of us to overcome the weeds in our daily living.  Saint Paul tells us in Romans:  "In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groaning." (Rom 8:26)

In the Eucharist at Mass, let us pray for the grace of patience with one another's shortcoming and to heed God's call for a change of heart and repentance.  For God in His great mercy, constantly invites us back to Him every time we wander away.  He is remarkably, and truly, our patient God.

A blessed Sunday to us all.  And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!