While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off (Mt 13:25). 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time Cycle A July 17 th, 2011
First Reading: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 13 For neither is there any god besides you, whose care is for all people, to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly; 14 nor can any king or monarch confront you about those whom you have punished. 15 You are righteous and you rule all things righteously, deeming it alien to your power to condemn anyone who does not deserve to be punished. 16 For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all. 17 For you show your strength when people doubt the completeness of your power, and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it. 18 Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us; for you have power to act whenever you choose. 19 Through such works you have taught your people that the righteous must be kind, and you have filled your children with good hope, because you give repentance for sins. Responsorial Psalm: 86:5-7, 9-16 Lector: 5 For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, All: abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. Lector: 6 Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; All: listen to my cry of supplication. Lector: 7 In the day of my trouble I call on you, All: for you will answer me. Lector: 9 All the nations you have made shall come and bow down before you, O Lord, All: and shall glorify your name. Lector: 10 For you are great and do wondrous things; All: you alone are God. Lector: 11 Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; All: give me an undivided heart to revere your name. Lector: 12 I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, All: and I will glorify your name for ever. Lector: 13 For great is your steadfast love towards me; All: you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. Lector: 14 O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, All: and they do not set you before them. Lector: 15 But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, All: slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Lector: 16 Turn to me and be gracious to me; All: give your strength to your servant.
Second Reading: Romans 8:26-27 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:24-43 [long version] or 13:24-30 [short version]: The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat 24 He put before them another parable: The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from? 28 He answered, An enemy has done this. The slaves said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? 29 But he replied, No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. The Parable of the Mustard Seed 31 He put before them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; 32 it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. The Parable of the Yeast 33 He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened. The Use of Parables 34 Jesus told the crowds all these things in parables; without a parable he told them nothing. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: I will open my mouth to speak in parables; I will proclaim what has been hidden from the foundation of the world. Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. 37 He answered, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;
38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! Homily From my personal perspective as both a psychologist and a priest, the parable of the wheat and tares is one of the deepest and most profound of all the sayings attributed to Jesus. From the First Reading and the Psalm, we are led to understand that there is a process of growth and change and that God teaches us and loves us through maturing toward an undivided heart, that is, one who is focused on what matters and not tossed to and fro in the winds of change. With great forbearance he governs us, says Wisdom (12:18b). God has taught us that the righteous must be kind and beneficent. God has filled his children with good hope because he brings us to merciful repentance for our sins (12:19). Clearly, if there is a commitment to stay in communion with God, he will lead us toward wholeness. For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you. (Psalm 86:5). The Psalmist prays for God to give him an undivided heart to revere your name, and gives thanks to God with my whole heart for great is your steadfast love towards me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol (86:11b, 13). The Second Reading tells us something very profound, that we may not even be fully aware of the deep and unconscious processes going on which God uses to teach us and that goes on inside us. And, even here, God labors with us: the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, know what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. So what are the weeds among the wheat? Wheat suggests a sustaining source of life while tares will compete for resources that should go to good growth of wheat. Perhaps tares are destructive distractions of some kind. While everybody was asleep which metaphorically may suggest unconscious or unaware an enemy came, sowed weeds, and then left and went away. So it is in our spiritual development. There will be some events that instigate wild and unregulated development in the depths of our minds and hearts. But all seemed well as the plants began to come up. At first, no one can tell the difference between the what and tares. Then, servants recognized that some of the
plants were not wheat, but were tares. In other words, once they reached a certain stage of development, you could foresee that the end-product was not going to mature into a good source of sustenance. Jesus interpretation depicted wheat and tares as separate people. So the tares are recognizable as tares at a certain stage in their development, but they are permitted to go on growing. We learn from scripture that it rains on the just and unjust alike. It seems that some are not good and contributing members of our world but instead, become parasites, using up valuable resources and crowding out the worthy plants. But you will reap what you sow, and the tares will not turn into wheat. In due time, the tares will be taken out of the field. It is not for us to know when that time will come, and so often it seems unfair that they flourish at all. The tare is given time, as it were, to turn into wheat. On a certain level, it might seem that the parable depicts a more deterministic view of people, where the outcome is understood in advance. So possibly the analogy breaks down unless you re into a die-hard theological predestination. And, I think it is also reasonable to interpret the wheat and tares as part of our own individual personalities, a level of analysis that perhaps is more akin to our more individualistic 21 st century perspectives rather than their 1 st century perspectives. But in the tradition of Hebraic midrash, we can simultaneously consider multiple levels in the story, and over the centuries, reflecting off our own cultural perspectives, we will gain new insights. From our perspective today, the enemy may be us! In Jesus own explanation of this parable he says that The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers (verse 41). This verse seems to suggest a possible intra-personal perspective as well as interpersonal one. The evil sower may indeed be ourselves, where we reap what we ourselves have sown. Knowing that by certain attitudes, thought processes, emotions, or behaviors, we may do harm and damage to ourselves and others, we continue on. Perhaps at first we do not fully recognize the seriousness of our errors, but as the fruit of the spirit mature, we will see what is really harmful -- we reap discord with others, we experience a stricken conscience, we see the consequences of the seeds we have sown. So, in due time. We begin to recognize our errors. As the good plants mature and gain strength as the personality grows and gains more independence then the individual becomes strong enough to choose to tolerate the rooting out of damaging, sinful, evil components that compete for control. And it is often a struggle. Our Second Reading in Romans so beautifully depicts the process where we may not be fully aware of all the forces working in us, we may not be aware of influences from both within and without that are in contradiction to one another. We do not even know how to pray because we lack awareness. But we can have certainty that God is still working in us. The Holy Spirit intervenes and gives us what we need to know at this very moment. And we don t have to know everything. We only have to surrender and allow Her to do Her work, and the fruits of the spirit of love, mercy, justice will grow -- we experience the mercy and learn the kindness that She has given us that we can know within ourselves that we have value and we can share with those who are most in need. It is not Christmas, but perhaps each time we engage
in this process of surrendering to the new possibilities within ourselves we recreate some of the wonder of the Incarnation: Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till He appeared and the Spirit felt its worth. A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees! Oh, hear the angel voices! O night divine, the night when Christ was born. Blessed be our hope in being born anew, even as we must painfully root out that which impedes our ability to love. Which is a weed and which is a flower? Who is a sinner and who is a saint? Are we both? Fond Father, you wait for us in patience and kindness, as we, with your help, work with our weeds. Thank you for your tolerance. Make us patient with others. Amen Prayer copied by permission. Copyright 2011, The Center for Liturgy at Saint Louis University. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce for personal or parish use.