19 July 2020 – 16th Sunday of ordinary time – Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Matthew 13:24-43

      Today, we hear another parable from Jesus about sowing seeds.  Last week, we heard about the sower who scattered seed in different types of soil.  Today, we hear about two sowers who have very different motives. The farmer sows good seed in his field, preparing for a bountiful harvest, while his enemy sows weeds amongst the wheat, hoping to destroy and sabotage what the farmer has planted.  Biblical scholars claim that Matthew was talking about a weed called darnel, a very common destructive weed in Israel that resembles wheat.  When wheat and darnel grow next to each other as small plants, they look exactly alike.  The farmer can only tell the difference between them when the plants mature and the grain start to form. 

        Jesus’ parables may seem simple on the surface, but they give us many rich teachings when we delve into them and break them open. In today’s parable, the servants ask the master if he wants them to pull up the weeds to get rid of them, but the master warns them that if they try pulling them up, they’ll uproot the wheat and destroy the harvest.  The master wants to allow the wheat and weeds to grow together in the field, not separating them until harvest time, but the parable doesn’t tell us if the master’s judgment was correct, if this ended up as the right decision for a successful harvest.  Reflecting upon this parable, we might ask ourselves what Jesus’ goal could be in telling about the weeds and the wheat.  If we assume that the master’s judgment was right and provided for a bountiful harvest, today’s parable might be trying to assure us that the wheat will survive the attack of the weeds sown by the enemy, that the forces of good in the world will survive the forces of evil. We’re called to trust in the Lord, to trust the Lord’s judgment in the end times, to trust in his ability to do the separating of the wheat from the weeds when that time comes. We live in a modern world today where intolerance and judgment are so pervasive.  We have seen this taken to the extreme during the months of the pandemic, haven’t we? Even within our own Church, some might think that there is only one way of being a true Catholic.  We might want everyone to live out the Catholic faith the same way we live it out.  We might be unwilling to listen to other voices within our Church that are perhaps a bit different than our own.  Perhaps we don’t want to recognize the diverse ways our Catholic faith is expressed and lived out in the world.  When you go to mass in a different culture or in a different part of our country, the mass is very recognizable even if you don’t know the language, even though there are different styles and approaches that give a unique flavor to the mass.  The same could be said about the different ways we live out our faith based upon different cultures, personalities, and interests. We are all recognizably Catholic, but there is also a diversity of expression within the realm of Catholicism. 

        Being open to different facets of our faith and learning to grow in the ways we see God are perhaps connected to the attributes that are prescribed to God in our 1st reading from the book of Wisdom, attributes that we are called to emulate and practice in our lives. The book of Wisdom sees God’s justice and leniency coming from his power, mastery, and strength – quite a paradox, isn’t it?  Wisdom sees God governing us and judging us in justice, in clemency, in kindness.  God could use his power over us in a very heavy-handed way, but he doesn’t.  He calls us to trust in his love and mercy, to respect him and honor him, but not in a fearful way, rather in a healthy, loving way.  Showing that same sense of justice mercy, love and respect in the way we interact with our neighbors, in the way we live out our Catholic faith in the great diversity of expression that exist – that is what we are called to do.  Perhaps you were not expecting this message in today’s homily, which reflects the richness and beauty of the parables that Jesus give us in his teachings and ministry.  As we live out the spirit of the Eucharist in our lives, as we are nourished by the body and blood of Christ, as Christ lives within us in this very special way, may we marvel and respect the rich diversity that exists within our Catholic faith.  That is truly a way for the Eucharist to have an affect on our lives. 

7/23/2017 - 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Matthew 13: 24-43

      The Book of Wisdom was written about a century before Christ’s birth by a pious Jew in Alexandria, Egypt.  In the Ancient world at the time, many believed in a God who was strict and angry and judgmental.  The Book of Wisdom, however, sees God differently: A God who is merciful.  Wisdom states: “For your might, (O Lord) is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.” In this reading, Wisdom tells us of our God who is so powerful and wise that he does not need to be vengeful and quick to punish. God lets his enemies live because, given time, they may repent.  

       So many in our world today do not believe in God.  Church attendance is dropping.  And it is popular for people to say that they are spiritual, but do not identify with any organized religion.  Unfortunately, so many believers do not believe in a God to who we can have a relationship with, or they believe in a God who wants vengeance or revenge or punishment when we disobey his laws and commandments or when we stray.  But the message we get from today’s Gospel is so different.  In today’s parable, amongst the wheat are growing a type of weed where the farmer cannot tell the difference between the two of them until the time the kernels of grain start forming on the stalk.  Sowing these weeds in the midst of a farmers grain would definitely be a mean and destructive way for an enemy to get revenge.  These weeds in the parable stand for unrepentant sinners, people whose first priority is themselves, who use others for their own advancement or pleasure, instead of serving them.  These unrepentant sinners do not cooperate with God’s grace. Yet, God is always hopeful.  He hopes for conversion and renewal and repentance.  And that does happen.  We see miracles all the time.  But it can get very frustrating and discouraging to see the weeds growing amongst us, can’t it?  It can deflate us and discourage us from our own journey of faith. 

     This weekend we celebrate St James the Greater, our parish’s patron saint. I thought it was divine intervention that I was able to serve at a parish named after St James, since James and his ministry and his pilgrimage was have been a great inspiration to me.  In fact, my first pilgrimage to the Way of St James help me discern my call to the priesthood. If we look back to Jesus and his group of disciples, to all the hardships, challenges, and setbacks they faced, it is really a miracle that they all stayed loyal to their faith and to their mission, that they were able to pass down the faith to us.  James persevered in his faith and went to Spain as a missionary, where he had very little success gaining converts. Then, after returning to Jerusalem, he was the first of the original group of apostles who was martyred.   I bet James would be impressed and amazed as to how he inspires so many in our Catholic faith today.  The pilgrimage that reaches James’ tomb in Spain, which was rediscovered in the early 9th century, has been in existence for more than 1,000 years.  It was popular in the Middle Ages, but after the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, when pilgrimages were criticized and under attack, very few pilgrims came. Back in 1985, only 1,200 official pilgrims arrived in James’ holy city of Santiago de Compostela in Spain.  Last year, 278,000 pilgrims officially reached Santiago.  This ancient Catholic pilgrimage route draws people from all walks of life.  And the spirituality of St James and his pilgrimage touches so many different lives.  

       Last week, I was interviewed by a reporter from the Tupelo newspaper, one of the things he asked me was if I thought the Catholic Church was still relevant to the modern world and still had something to say.  Even when I look at our Church critically, I definitely see our Catholic faith being relevant to the modern world and to the lives of the faithful.  In fact, in a world where so many people are turning their backs on the faith and searching elsewhere. Our faith not only looks to read the signs of the times and to dialogue with the modern world.  Our faith also looks at our ancient traditions, the faith of the Church fathers and mothers, the faith of those first apostles such as St James the Greater. This past weekend, it was so wonderful seeing our Vacation Bible School celebrating the Saints of the Church, the traditions of our faith. It amazed me to listen to the questions the children were asking, such as what was the identity and symbolism of the little person at the foot of Our Lady of Guadalupe, if Mary had appeared in any apparitions here in the United States, and whether the St James who is our parish’s patron saint is St James the Lesser or St James the Greater.  Indeed, we have to find ways to practice our faith and to pass down our faith and evangelize in order for our faith to survive amongst the weeds, in order to us to renew and repent on our journey of faith. 

      As we hear from Christ’s parables from Matthew’s Gospel during several weeks, as we read the many parables that are contained in the New Testament, we are asked to critically think, we are asked to delve into the meaning of these parables and to see how their meaning applies to our lives.  As we hear about the parable of the weeds and the wheat today, perhaps our Lord Jesus Christ is asking us to take a good look at the landscape of our own lives, to see the weeds and the wheat that are growing there. The Lord is calling us to help him to pull out the weeds that exist in our own personalities, in our own lives, in our own backyard.  Jesus saw the weeds and the wheat in the lives of St James and the rest of the apostles.  Jesus can patience with them, knowing that with encouragement and hope, that the wheat would prevail.  May we have that same hope.