16 Sunday A: Wheat and Weeds - Stories & Reflection
Gospel text: Matthew 13:24-3
Michel DeVerteuil
General Comments
15th Week, Thursday, Jul 16
Isaiah 26:7-9, 12, 16-19 / Matthew 11:28-30
Isaiah holds out
hope:
Those sleeping in their graves will wake up.
After
the Titanic
sank in the North Atlantic, a newspaper carried two pictures side by side. The
first picture showed the ship’s side ripped open by the huge iceberg. Under it
was printed: “The weakness
of man, the supremacy of nature.” The second picture showed a passenger giving
his place in a lifeboat to a woman with a child in her arms. Under it was printed:
“The weakness of nature, the supremacy of man.” Isaiah sees the southern
kingdom in similar terms. By itself, it appears doomed and without hope. With
God’s help, however, it can rise from the grave and live again.
17th Week, Tuesday, July 26
17th Week, Tuesday, July 26
Exodus
33:7-11; 34:5-9, 28 / Matthew 13:36-43
Moses communicates with God; He talked to God as to another Person.
15th Week, Wednesday, Jul 15
Isaiah 10:5-7, 13-16 / Matthew 11:25-27
Isaiah rebukes
Assyria:
“Can an ax be greater than its user?”
The
nation of Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. Now
it threatened to destroy the southern kingdom of Judah, as well. Isaiah
portrays Assyria as an ax in the hand of a woodsman (God) who was grubbing out
the undergrowth from his vineyard (Judah). God was using Assyria to purify
Judah. Meanwhile, Assyria grew arrogant, thinking that it alone was responsible
for its power and its victories. This led Isaiah to remind Assyria that without
the power of the woodsman’s arms the ax is useless.
15th Week: July 13-18: Reflections
July 13 Monday
(St. Henry): https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-henry/ Mt 10:34–11:1: 34 “Do not think
that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a
sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter
against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a
man’s foes will be those of his own household. 37 “Whoever loves father or
mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow
after me is not worthy of me.
15th Week, Tuesday, Jul 14
Isaiah 7:1-9 /
Matthew 11:20-24
God speaks through
Isaiah:
“If your faith is firm, you’ll be firm.”
Tennessee
Williams wrote a play called The
Night of the Iguana. In one scene Hannah Jelkes is talking to Mr.
Shannon, who seems to have a drinking problem. Hannah says, “Liquor isn’t your
problem, Mr. Shannon.” And, of course, Mr. Shannon says to Hannah, “Then what
is my problem?” Hannah says, “The oldest one in the world—the need to believe in
something or in someone—almost anyone—
almost anything . . . something.”
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