Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
My dear parishioners,
God is Good!!! All the Time!!! And All the Time!!! God is Good!!!
Scripture Reflection
With its rich vocabulary and beautiful phrasing, this book encourage its readers to recognize what truly counts for wisdom in this world. True wisdom cannot be gained by mortal endeavors alone. It is a gift from God granted to those who seek it with all sincerity. Throughout the book, the author explores all the advantages enjoyed by those who aspire to the wisdom only God can give. They live a meaningful life, free from the misguided and limited thinking of the unrighteous. After life in this world, they enjoy immortality with God.
Today’s Gospel contains three parables of Jesus plus an allegorical interpretation of one of them. Most scholars think that the allegorical interpretations come from the early Christian community and not from Jesus himself. A strong characteristic of the way Jesus used parables is the surprise ending that many of them contain. It is this surprise ending that can catch us off guard and invite us to look deeper into what Jesus said.
The wheat and the weeds. Remember, Jesus is using these parables to describe the reality of the kingdom of heaven (God’s rule). Somehow weeds get sown into a farmer’s field of wheat. It is agreed that this is the work of an enemy. If not immediately cut down, the weeds could easily take over the whole field of wheat and destroy it. Logically, the slaves assume that the master wants the weeds pulled up. But what a surprise when the master says, “No.” Let them grow side by side until harvest time and then the master will decide which weeds are and which wheat are. The wheat will be saved, but the weeds burned. Can weeds influence wheat? Is it easy to determine wheat from weeds? Who makes the decision regarding wheat and weeds? In the kingdom of heaven, God makes these decisions and God does not always decide as humans do.
The mustard seed. To what might the kingdom of heaven be compared? Certainly, it must be something great, grand, and suited for royalty. After all, it is God’s kingdom. But Jesus says quite the opposite. It is as ordinary as a tiny mustard seed which, when full grown, is nothing more than a large shrub. The kingdom of heaven must be found in the ordinary, everyday reality of daily life. It is not a palace for a king. It is the reality of God’s presence available to all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast. Here the surprise is in the vast amount of leavened dough that results from the yeast—three measures. This would be about fifty pounds, or enough to feed well over a hundred people. This is how the kingdom works. It can start out tiny, but when it begins to work, it can produce remarkable results. Again, the challenge is to find the extraordinary right in the midst of the ordinary. Excerpts from “Sunday Homily Helps”, is used by permission of Franciscan Media. www.FranciscanMedia.org.©2016. All rights reserved
Sincerely in Christ,
Fr. Aloysius