Homily for the Week of July 17, 2011

HOMILY: Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2011

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16

Romans 8:26-27

Matthew 13:24-43 or 13:24-30

For the second weekend in a row we hear is Jesus telling stories involving farming and baking. He uses what are called parables. Parables are stories that help us to understand our religion. Parables are short stories about good and bad, about how we are to change our life. There about 40 of these parables in the Bible. Most of these stories, like the one that I just read, are based on farming. But as we listen to these stories, try to imagine that at the time of Jesus there was an in-group and an out-group. With these stories Jesus is trying to tell us that there is only one group: the group that believes in God and is trying to do what God wants them to do. God doesn't simply strike down all bad guys with a powerful hand.

What do you do when you find weeds sprouting in your garden or flowers? Do you pull them out or let them grow? How did they get there? So, why not get rid of the weeds? That is probably what most farmers and gardeners would do. But Jesus says: Let them grow together. God is the one who will make the necessary separation at the harvest time. Can't we see ourselves in that story. How often have you said to yourself: It is not what I want to do that I do, but it is what I do not want to do that I do? How can it be that when I want to be good I get tempted to do something bad. But there is also another problem. How often have we labelled some people as wheat and others as weeds in our life? The truth is that each of us are both.

Could it be that at times we do not know which are the weeds and which is the wheat in our life? Certainly there are times when we do know the difference. But it is so easy to give in to a temptation.

In the story about the mustard seed we realize that great things can come from the smallest. Jesus makes a comparison between the size of the seed and the plant that can grow to be 10 feet tall. This is how God works in our life. At first we may not notice God. We become impatient. But if we keep on praying, God will come into our life. He will change it. He will bring us happiness, because it is only our faith in God and Jesus that can bring us true happiness. Jesus is telling us that we cannot judge the value of someone simply from what we see; their greatness is in who they are. We are all mustard seeds waiting to grow.

How often do you read some serious articles on your faith or spirituality? A person would never get through school without reading, thinking about what they read and talking about it with friends or writing about it on tests. I am sure that a person who wants to be a qualified technician of any kind needs to be updated as technology changes. So too it should be with our faith and religion. We can not expect to grow spiritually by just standing still. It is then that the weeds will smother us.

Before we seek to purge others from our lives, we should look inward and find where good and bad are living besides each other inside us. In our families, in our churches and even in our politics, we experience the desire to purge, to judge, to cast out. We must resist. We cannot tolerate blatant evil when we do see it. The problem, however, is that not all evil — and not all good — is completely clear to us. We must be thankful that God is the final judge. The good and the bad must stay alongside each other--just like the wheat and the weeds. One must tolerate the other, but the activity of the Spirit will encourage a good and fruitful harvest in the end.

Jesus is also telling us today that even in the beautiful side of life, where we are in harmony with God, there is always the possibility of evil-- like fraud, blowing away a good name, oppression of the poor by a greedy government and many others weeds that somehow get in with the wheat.

Furthermore, evil cannot be eliminated by destroying everything that appears evil. Rather, we have to work through a life that is not perfect, knowing that the evil that lurks in the weeds is a constant reminder of our fallen condition and that only Jesus can guide us to be on the right road.

All of these stories point us to our need to prepare ourselves every day to meet God as our judge when we die. Yes, the future begins today; the heaven to which we hope to go some day begins today. Jesus, through these short stories, is trying to teach us that heaven must truly begin here in this life; here on earth. Jesus is also teaching us of God's forgiveness. He is telling us not to be less merciful and patient than God as we notice family members, friends, strangers and Catholics who don't always practice what they preach. Most of us can spot a hypocrite when we see one --unless it is our self. How many of us have wondered why God couldn't have created everyone to be as wise and generous and perfect as we are? Wouldn't that be splendid?

Just as trees or any plant grows gradually day to day without noise and even notice, so too do these Bible stories about how goodness and spirituality grows in us. It is not the size that is important but the desire to change. But these stories also teach us that God's church has plenty of room for everyone. Jesus has opened his father's house to everyone including the indifferent and the imperfect. So the next time that we ask God to condemn someone who has done something bad, let us remember our own weedy moments and be thankful that God is always ready to forgive us.