16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16 (5a)
Romans 8:26-27
Matthew 13:24-43
July 23, 2023
“Where have the weeds come from?”
The man had sowed only good seed. Why were weeds growing in the field?
His enemy had come during the night when everyone was asleep and sowed the weeds.
There is evil in the world today. Where does it come from?
God created all that is good. There is much that is good in the world but we also encounter evil in the world. God does not create the evil but He does give us free will. The devil comes as God’s enemy and sows seeds of temptation in us. This leads to the evil we see in the world.
Jesus uses the Parable of the Weeds to help us understand this and how to respond. In the parable, the slaves ask the man, “’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.”
God does not rush to ripe out the weeds. Not only do we not want to uproot the good seed, you might ask yourself what a weed is. Sometimes what we think is a weed might be a flower that just needs more time to blossom.
God is patient. His greatness means we cannot hurt him. Thus, He can be lenient with us. He can treat us with clemency.
The Parable of the Weeds tells us that at the harvest, the wheat and the weeds will be separated. There will be a final judgment where the weeds will be burned while the wheat is gathered into the barn.
Until then, God will be lenient. When we sin, we still have grounds for hope because, since Jesus has died for our sins, God permits repentance for our sins.
When we sin, we become undesirable like weeds. God could choose to immediately condemn us for our sins. He would be just in doing so. Thank God (literally) that He does not choose to immediately condemn us.
Instead, God gives us another chance. God knows our full potential. Here, Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed. Mustard seed is very small, “the smallest of all the seeds,” but it will become a large plant. In the tiny mustard seed is all that is needed for it to become a large plant.. It just needs the proper nutrients.
When our life begins at conception, God plants his seed of goodness in us. So, God knows we have the potential for good within us. God knows we are capable of good because He makes us that way.
So, when we sin, God knows that if we repent, we can still become good. God stands ready to help us overcome the evil. When we confess our sins with a repentant heart, God wipes away the sin and gives us grace.
When we battle temptation, we can ask the Spirit to help us. Our first preference is to ask God to take away our temptations and sufferings. That isn’t always meant to be. Sometimes we are to ask for the grace to persevere through the sufferings and without yielding to temptation.
When we turn our hearts to God, He will have pity on us, and give us the strength we need. Remember what I said last week regarding the Parable of the Sower. God gives us rich soil in his Word and in the Eucharist.
There will be a final judgment. Those who have sinned and did not repent will be thrown into the fiery furnace. Those who have repented will be gathered into the Kingdom of Heaven.