16th Sunday: WHEAT and WEEDS: Mt
13:24-43:
The Lord in Mathew’s “Kingdom of God” discourse speaks about
the seeds, soil, weeds, treasure and food for all (Eucharist) for four Sundays. That is the Word of God despite many oppositions, resistances, disturbances, persecutions would become food for the soul. Our sowing is o feed the spiritual hunger or the nourishment of the world.
a. Seeds are God’s word leading us into the
establishment of the Kingdom of God. A kingdom that follows i. Justice
(righteousness), ii. love, iv. Peace, v. mercy, vi. Compassion, etc
b. But our Soil (Bodies with our minds, hearts with
spirits are affected by some outside elements i. birds picking up it up UP=defeated,
ii. Rocky soil=defiant and thorny field=distracted
c. Those with good soil produce 30, 60 and even a
100%
16th
Sunday: Seeds and weeds
17th
Sunday: Treasure buried in the field
18th
Sunday: Feeding the hungry (sharing, Eucharist)
Seeds to soil to Food
to Sharing to Eucharist. Fill the Spiritual and Physical hunger of the world.
The weeds in
Matthew's little parable are darnel. Botanists call them "lolium
termulentum." They are members of the wheat family which look like wheat
and hide out in wheat-fields, producing poisonous seeds. Darnel is the villain
in today’s gospel story of the wheat and the weeds.
Weeds among Wheat:
There is a lot of good in the worst of us and some evil in
the best of us. In other words, the best of us may still sow some
"weeds" in God’s Garden.
UNDERSTANDING WEEDS
IN US: the reality of wheat and weeds mixed in life:
1. Our
personality is made of: nature
and nurture, i.e.
DNA and environment
2. If wheat
represents nature or what we got from our parents, weeds suggest what we get
from our friends, society, culture or from the world
THE ENVIRONMENT WE LIVE IN: INFLUENCES
A. Professionally
1.
People who are psychologists if they listen only
psycho- logical interpretation of reality
2.
People who are charismatic listen to people who
advocate their way of preaching
3.
Rigid or fundamental types listen to their own
4.
Americans or Asians or Africans or Europeans listen
to their own types or styles or idioms as their idea of reality
5.
They read books, mingle with people of their types
only
6.
They don’t try and get an opportunity to think
out of the box
B.
Socially
INFLUENCES:
1.
Peers: alcohol, drugs, violence, careless
living, ideologies
2.
Women/men- relationships
3.
Pornography, obscenity
4.
Universalism
5.
Political, cultural
6.
Scamsters & money-launderers
7.
Certain Christian sectors
C. Israel: Culturally
During its
long history, Jerusalem has been attacked 52 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, besieged 23
times, and destroyed twice. Israel was influenced by the people they lived
with or were captives or slaves under them:
Assyrian,
Persian, roman and Greek, ….
D.
Politically
and Socially
1.
Nazi
– anti-Semitic mind set
2.
WASP
(White-Anglo-Saxon-Protestant in this order of preference) in USA– recent George
Floyd incident
3.
Hutu-Tutsi
in 1994 in Rwanda-killed 1 million people
4.
Caste
issues in India
5.
Problems
for tribal groups across Asia & Africa & even Europe
6.
French
& Acadians in Canada
We say: A few wrong turns. It happens in life. It
happens to good people. A few bad judgments and suddenly you are lost,
entangled, trapped in the weeds. Sometimes much is at stake. A marriage. Your
health. Your vocation. Your name and fame. The safety of others. Pulling weeds
is an important part of a successful life.
AN EXAMPLE OF A WRONG TURN: BILL CLINTON
What is it that causes some people to act irresponsibly?
Just a few short years ago, we had a President who was guilty of
irresponsible behavior. He was not the first President to behave badly, just
one of the recent. But somewhere along the way, the American people made a
decision that President Bill Clinton was not an evil man. Most people believed
him to have a good heart, but even his most rabid fans have to agree he has a
serious problem that he does not seem able to control. What causes some good
people to lose control of their lives? Even more important, how can we help
these people and even help ourselves when we are drawn toward similar
self-destructive patterns?
OUR MISSION: JESUS TEACHES US: To be
patient
a) Let them
grow up together
b) You may
harm the wheat by plucking up the weed early
c) Certain
challenge of life: the weed may have a function or process in the growth of the
wheat
d) There’ll
be a time of reckoning
e) Personal
response – decision making
EVAGELIZATION
Evangelization consists mostly of patience... Faithful to the Lord’s
gift, it also bears fruit. An evangelizing community is always concerned with
fruit, because the Lord wants her to be fruitful. It cares for the grain and
does not grow impatient at the weeds. The sower, when he sees weeds sprouting
among the grain does not grumble or overreact. He or she finds a way to let the
word take flesh in a particular situation and bear fruits of new life, however
imperfect or incomplete these may appear.
A. The story of ABRAHAM LINCOLN: LONG SETBACKS
From 1816
to 1858, Abraham Lincoln encountered every adversity, every failure, every
set-back that a person could face and yet in 1860 he was elected president of
America.
It was as
if the lord was preparing him to deal with the civil war period as no one else
could have to bring the bounced & battered ship of America to a safe
harbor. All the weeds that he faced made him stronger in character, wiser in
mind, broader in perspective and humbler in patient bearing of even insults.
These characteristics really bore much fruit.
WEEDS WOULD BE PART OF LIFE.
But they don’t control you. Detachment does not
mean you should own nothing. It means that nothing should own you.
B. OSKAR SCHINDLER: SAVED JEWS FROM NAZIS
SELFISHNESS INTO KINDNESS: “WIPING AWAY” THE
WEEDS!
Oskar Schindler,
a successful businessman, arrives in Krakow (Poland) from Czechoslovakia hoping
to use the abundant cheap labor force of the Jews to manufacture goods for the
German military. Schindler, a nominal Catholic and an opportunistic member of
the Nazi Party, lavishes bribes upon the army officials and Nazi leaders and acquires a factory for the
production of army mess kits. But he is a mixture of good and evil. Unfaithful to his wife, he certainly knows
how to enjoy the so called “good life” -cigars, drink, women. He exploits his
Jewish workers as a source of cheap labor. But as he witnesses the horrors
endured by the Jews, the good elements in his character wake up. So, he starts
saving Jews, using his immense wealth and his political influence.
C. STEPHEN GRANT, A RESEARCH SCIENTIST
What makes you what you are
Stephen Grant, a research scientist who had made several medical breakthroughs was
being interviewed and asked: What set him so far apart from others? He
responded that in his opinion, it all came from an experience with his mother
that occurred when he was two years old. He had been trying to remove a bottle
of milk from the refrigerator when he lost his grip on the slippery bottle and
it fell, spilling its contents all over the kitchen floor. When his mother came
into the kitchen, instead of yelling at him, she said, “Robert, what a great
and wonderful mess you have made! I have rarely seen such a huge puddle of
milk. Well, the damage has already been done. Would you like to get down and play
in the milk for a few minutes before we clean it up?” Indeed, he did. After a
few minutes, his mother said, “You know, Robert, whenever you make a mess like
this, you have to clean it up and restore everything to its proper order. So
how would you like to do that?
He chose
the sponge and together they cleaned up the spilled milk. His mother then said,
“You know, what we have here is a failed experiment in how to effectively carry
a big milk bottle with two tiny hands. Let’s go in the back yard and discover a
way to carry it without dropping it. The little boy learned that if he grasped
the bottle at the top near the lid with both hands, he could carry it without
dropping it. What a wonderful lesson! The renowned scientist then remarked that
it was at that moment that he knew he didn’t need to be afraid to make
mistakes. Instead, he learned that
mistakes were just opportunities for learning something new, which is after
all, what scientific experiments are all about. Wouldn’t it be great if all
parents would respond the way Robert’s mother responded to him?
Jack
Canfield in 'A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul'
Mistakes were just Opportunities for Learning
Something New
D. REALITY OF LIFE: GOD’S PROMISE: JPII
God’s
presence & plans: patience bore fruit
In 1981, Pope John Paul II was shot at by Mehmet Ali Agca. In 1983,
Pope John Paul II goes to the prison cell to forgive him and called him his
“brother”. In 2007. Mehmet Agca became a Catholic.
The
patience & forgiveness of Saint John Paul II
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Only the
patient and forgiving can sing: “We shall overcome!” We are used by others and
feel that violent retaliation is the order of the day. We are betrayed by
others, even loved ones, and conclude that only revenge is the proper
reaction. We are often hurt by the remarks and words of others and judge that
to hurt in turn is the right antidote. Yet only the patient and forgiving can
sing: “We shall overcome!”
The married
person who, while remaining firm, chooses to forgive his or her spouse has
captured Jesus’ liberating message. Parents who exercise long-suffering and
patience with their family have grasped Jesus’ understanding of freedom. The
single who demonstrate tolerance and compassion in their jobs and personal
lives have uncovered Jesus’ strategy for the kingdom. Priests and religious who
prefer pardon to revenge, and understanding to retaliation, have accepted
Jesus’ manner of self-assertion. All such people maintain that only the patient
and forgiving can sing: “We shall overcome!”
CONCLUDING PRAYER!
Merciful and patient God, you let your sun rise on both bad and good
and let the rain fall on the just and the wicked alike.
Thank you for your patience and your confidence. Change our hearts, give us the time to grow and mature as disciples of Jesus your Son, and dispose us to accept everyone with your own untiring love and trust. Make this the way your kingdom grows among us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Thank you for your patience and your confidence. Change our hearts, give us the time to grow and mature as disciples of Jesus your Son, and dispose us to accept everyone with your own untiring love and trust. Make this the way your kingdom grows among us. We ask this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Go and deal with the weeds
GOD BLESS