{"id":2215,"date":"2017-07-23T12:06:36","date_gmt":"2017-07-23T16:06:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2215"},"modified":"2017-07-23T12:06:36","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T16:06:36","slug":"16th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/16th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

16th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nWisdom 12:13, 16-19
\nPsalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
\nRomans 8:26-27
\nMatthew 13:24-43<\/p>\n

Today Jesus speaks to us about weeding, a task common to many people.\u00a0 We are fortunate to have a couple of dedicated parishioners who take care of the general gardening for our properties.\u00a0 Just the other day, the lead parishioner was weeding and \u201coffered\u201d to let me help.\u00a0 My response was that won\u2019t be a good thing as I don\u2019t know which are the weeds versus what\u2019s supposed to be there.<\/p>\n

I have the same issue at my dad\u2019s.\u00a0 I do yard work like mowing but it\u2019s my dad\u2019s job to do the weeding.\u00a0 I do the pruning of the trees and bushes but even there I\u2019m not a tree or bush specialist.\u00a0 I decide what to prune on the trees by the \u201chit my head method,\u201d meaning if I hit my head on a branch when I mow, I cut the branch off.\u00a0 I consider that branch \u201cundesirable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isn\u2019t that basically what \u201cweeding\u201d is, removing the plants that aren\u2019t what we are trying to grow?\u00a0 If you are growing a vegetable garden and a tree starts to grow in the middle, you pull it because it isn\u2019t what you want there.<\/p>\n

In this sense, weeding can seem necessary or, at the very least, beneficial.\u00a0 So why does Jesus tell us that the master says not to pull the weeds?<\/p>\n

Of course Jesus\u2019 purpose in the parable goes beyond regular gardening.\u00a0 He\u2019s using this parable to talk about how we look at sinners.\u00a0 Should all sinners be cast out?\u00a0 Remember, the Jews in Jesus\u2019 day didn\u2019t eat with sinners.\u00a0 We might think of the words in an act of contrition prayer where we promise to avoid what leads us to sin.<\/p>\n

Does this mean that we should get rid of all sinners?\u00a0 If we define \u201cweeds\u201d as sins and we pull all the weeds would any of us remain?<\/p>\n

So the fact that Jesus says not to pull the weeds might be a very good thing for us sinners.\u00a0 Does that mean that we don\u2019t have to ever worry about our sins?\u00a0 No.<\/p>\n

The Book of Wisdom speaks of God as master \u201cover all things<\/em>\u201d and that God\u2019s \u201cmight is the source of justice.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 God has every right to punish us for our sins.\u00a0 He could treat us like weeds and ripe us out of his field which would lead to our death but God doesn\u2019t.\u00a0 Instead God chooses to be \u201clenient to all<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does this mean we never face judgment?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that at the harvest, the end of the ages, the weeds will be collected and burned (Hell).\u00a0 We need to repent.\u00a0 We need to admit our sins and allow God to forgive us.\u00a0 To do this Jesus has given us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to allow him to cleanse us of our sins before the harvest comes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16 Romans 8:26-27 Matthew 13:24-43 Today Jesus speaks to us about weeding, a task common to many people.\u00a0 We are fortunate to have a couple of dedicated parishioners who take care of the general gardening for our properties.\u00a0 Just the other day, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[315,316],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-zJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2215"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2215\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}