The patience of God our Father, the love of our
Lord Jesus Christ and the strength of the Holy Spirit be always with you. R/ And
also with you.
Introduction by the Celebrant
1. There Must Be Time to Heal
We all wish to see a world without evil, a
Church without faults. To see that the real Church and the real world are not
sinless and not perfect makes us impatient. Jesus reminds us today: be patient,
for God is patient with the Church, with the world, and with us. Let’s not
forget this. He gives us the time to change. Let us ask Jesus in this Eucharist
that we may begin the change of the world and of the Church with the change of
ourselves.
2. Patience with the Weeds
You feel happily surprised when, after a
mistake or an offence on your part, the person you have hurt is patient with
you and gives you new chances. That is God’s way with us. He keeps believing in
us. That is also the way God wants us to treat one another. Like him, we should
be fully aware that people are neither entirely good nor completely bad, and
that, therefore, we should be patient, forgiving, trusting, and give time to
heal. Let us thank our Lord for his patience and ask him to make us a bit like
himself.
Penitential Act
We now ask the Lord to forgive us that we have
not used the chances he gave us to be and to do better. (pause)
-Lord Jesus, give us the courage to change what
can be changed. Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
-Jesus Christ, give us the patience to accept
what cannot yet be changed. Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.
-Lord Jesus, give us the wisdom of your own
kind patience. Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.
Have mercy on us, Lord, and forgive us the evil
we have done. Make us patient with ourselves and others and lead us to
everlasting life. R/ Amen.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray to our loving God who is patient
and full of compassion (pause)
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.
First Reading: Wisdom
12:13, 16-19
God is Patient: God’s power does not
crush or oppress, not even the sinner. He shows his strength by his patience
and mercy. As he gives us time to change and be converted, we must be tolerant
with one another.
Second Reading: Romans
8:26-27
The Holy Spirit Helps Us in Our Weakness: Our Christian living is
imperfect, but God knows what is in our hearts; he will give us the Holy Spirit
to pray in us and give us strength and hope.
Gospel; Matthew 13:24-43
Leave It to God to Separate the Good from the
Bad: The
parable of the wheat and the weeds illustrates God is patience with an
imperfect Church and weak people. Not all in the Church are seeking God’s
kingdom. But God gives us the opportunity to be converted and to grow.
Prayers of the Faithful
We do not know how to pray properly. Let the
Holy Spirit express our plea for the good of the Church and of everyone. Let us
say: R/Lord, keep us in your love.
– We do not know how to be patient
properly. That the Holy Spirit keep us from judging harshly people who have
done wrong, even those who have hurt us, let us pray: R/ Lord, keep us
in your love.
– We do not know how to forgive
properly. That the Holy Spirit may give us the strength to take the first step
in seeking reconciliation, let us pray: R/ Lord, keep us in your love.
– We do not know how to hope
properly. May the Holy Spirit fill us with confidence in the future of the
Church and of our country, let us pray: R/ Lord, keep us in your love.
– We do not know how to bring
justice properly. Let the Holy Spirit make us aware of the rights of people and
dispose us to give all their due and more, let us pray: R/ Lord, keep
us in your love.
– We do not know how to love
properly. That the Holy Spirit give to our communities a sense of unity,
acceptance and belonging, let us pray: R/ Lord, keep us in your love.
Father, let your Holy Spirit prepare us in joy
for the day when you will harvest the seeds you have sown among us, through
Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God, merciful Father, Your Son Jesus
Christ invites you to his table the weak with the strong, the proud with the
humble. By encountering him, May the weak become stronger and the good better, and
may all of us become mild, forgiving and tolerant with each other, As you have
been patient with us through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.
Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer
Through Jesus and with him, we offer this
Eucharist to our patient and loving Father, and we thank him for his mercy.
Introduction to the Lord’s Prayer
We do not know how to pray as we should, but
the Holy Spirit helps us to pray well to our Father in heaven in the words of
Jesus himself. R/ Our Father...
Deliver Us
Deliver us, Lord, from every evil, most of all
from sin, the greatest of all evils. Keep us free from judging and condemning, for
who are we to pass judgment on others since we ourselves have to ask you to be
patient and lenient with us. Help us to accept and appreciate each other and to
prepare together in joy and hope the full coming among us of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ. R/ For the kingdom...
Invitation to Communion
This is Jesus the Lord, who sows in our hearts the
good seed of his message. Happy are we to listen to him and to receive him as
our bread of life.
R/ Lord, I am not worthy...
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God, you reveal your strength by being
lenient with the weak. We have received your Son Jesus Christin this
Eucharistic celebration. Fill us with the power of his Spirit, that we may
encourage rather than condemn, be constructive rather than hostile, accept one
another rather than reject, work together rather than criticise. In this way,
may we become more your people among whom Jesus lives, our Lord forever and
ever. R/ Amen.
Blessing
For people who easily classify others more
according their bad traits than their qualities, it is good that we have been
here with the Lord. He is patient with us, forgiving sees the good in us and
gives us the time to heal. From him, we learn to be patient with others. So let
us practice patience, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Go in peace and be patient
with one another. R/ Thanks be to God.
REFLECTIONS
Matthew 13: 24-43; Be calm,
God is in control
Jesus describes the Kingdom of
God through three parables in today’s Gospel reading. We will focus today on
the first story: that of the good wheat and the weeds, which illustrates the
problem of evil in the world and highlights God’s patience. A field
is the setting for the narrative. The Master of the field represents God, and
he sows good seed, while the enemy represents Satan, and he scatters weeds.
Matthew addressed his letter to
Jewish converts who became Christians. The Gospel was composed fifty years
after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The world around them displayed signs of
evil, growing and flourishing as they observed it. How come Jesus’ Kingdom has
not been fully and immediately successful?
It is necessary to explain why
evil exists. The evangelist explains it with a parable of Jesus. Only good seed
is sown by the Master of the field. The evangelist specifies that the seed is
of good quality. Every action of the Master is “good”! In Genesis 1, the
refrain is repeated ten times: “And God saw that it was good.” Everything that
God has done has been good.
Secondly, we have the enemy. He
represents the logic of this world, an anti-evangelical mentality. At night,
when everyone is sleeping, he sows the kind of weed that looks like grains. It
is impossible to eradicate it without destroying the wheat because its roots
are intertwined with those of the wheat.
Mathew wants to tell his
community that when our vigilance drops and when we lose focus into
dissipation, the devil finds a way into the field of our hearts to infest them
with the logic of the world. It takes only an oversight for one to adapt to the
world’s morality. Often, we do not even differentiate between the values of
Kingdom and those of the world, because they look very much alike. By the time
one realises the presence of the weed, it must have already become an
inseparable part of one’s life.
The servants approach the Master,
suggesting they should weed out the ground, but the Master knows that is
suicidal. He keeps his calm and tells the servants not to panic. The Gospel is
a gentle reminder that God is still in control.
When the harvest time comes, “all scandals and agents of iniquity” will be gathered and thrown into the fiery furnace. It’s not a threat of punishment but a good announcement of the fire of God - the fire of God refers to the Holy Spirit - and His Fire will purify us.
