16th Week, Saturday, July 23
Jeremiah 7:1-11 /
Matthew 13:24-30
Lloyd C. Douglas wrote The Robe, a novel. In it a young Roman soldier, Marcellus, is ordered to crucify a Galilean whose preaching is upsetting authorities. Marcellus really believes the man is innocent, but he obeys his orders. When the Galilean is dying, Marcellus joins the other soldiers in dicing for the victim's beautiful robe. When he puts the robe on, however, he becomes troubled and can't get his thoughts off the Galilean.
The idea of becoming a Christian begins to plague his
thinking, but he fights it. Eventually, he realizes that God is speaking to him.
He becomes a Christian and discovers a peace that he had never known before.
***
How do we react when our thoughts seem to invite us to
become better Christians than we are? "Christ is not valued at all unless
he is valued above all." St. Augustine
***
In some countries, corruption is widespread and rampant, and
it usually affects government departments and agencies. As it is, corruption
taints the reputation of the government, and the government departments and
agencies end up with a bad name. But what if the department or agency involved
in corruption is the law enforcement department or agency, ie. the police
force.
In other words, what if the police station has become the robbers' den? That is what the Lord was saying in the 1st reading, that His people were committing sin upon sin, and yet they come to the Temple and saying, and expecting, the Lord to protect them.
The people don't seem to realize that God and sin cannot be
dwelling in the same place; they are mutually exclusive and they can't
co-exist. And they even have the cheek to say: Now we are safe - safe to go on
committing all these abominations. We will certainly wonder how they can get so
spiritually corrupted and yet not aware of it.
Yet in the gospel parable, we may get a hint from Jesus as
to how this has happened - The enemy has planted darnel among the wheat when
everybody was asleep. Let us be alert and vigilant because the enemy is
prowling around and trying to sow seeds of evil in our hearts.
Let us stand up against him, strong in faith, and let us
also ask the Lord to purify our hearts of all sin and evil corruption.
*****
Christians deplore the practice of superstition as it
conflicts and contradicts the belief in God. Included in the superstitious
practices are consulting horoscopes, fortune-tellers and palm-reading, etc. But
few of us Catholics would admit to having religious superstitions.
For e.g., what are the real reasons for hanging the palm branch on the door post, drink holy water, wear holy medals, etc. Of course, there are valid religion reasons for these practices, but yet we can also concoct our own queer reasons for doing so.
The 1st reading pointed out that the people were using the
Temple of the Lord as a kind of religious superstitious object by saying
delusive words like "This is the sanctuary of the Lord."
The contradiction was that they know they were in the presence of God and yet they continue with their sinful ways.
Religion becomes a sort of superstition when we say we
believe in God and come to church to obtain whatever religious articles and yet
there is no change in our sinful ways.
The gospel parable highlights the sinful and superstitious
practices in our lives but God is loving and merciful. May the weeds of our
sinfulness slowly diminish and may we produce a rich harvest of true love for
God and neighbour.
***
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, you know it: our hearts are divided, torn
between good and evil. Give us clear eyes to look into our own hearts rather
than in those of our neighbour and to accept that we are not as good as we like
to be. Make us grow up to become more like him who was your perfect image and
our model, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
