Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 106

Reading 1

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

There is no god besides you who have the care of all,
that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.
For your might is the source of justice;
your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved;
and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us;
for power, whenever you will, attends you.
And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.
 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16

R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
 

 

 

Reading 2

Romans 8:26-27

Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. 
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.
 

 

Alleluia

Cf. Matthew 11:25

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;
you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
 

 

Gospel

Matthew 13:24-43

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened
to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. 
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? 
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him,
'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them. 
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

He proposed another parable to them. 
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field. 
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. 
It becomes a large bush,
and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

He spoke to them another parable. 
"The kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. 
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.

Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. 
His disciples approached him and said,
"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." 
He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. 
The weeds are the children of the evil one,
and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age. 
The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. 
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. 
Then the righteous will shine like the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father. 
Whoever has ears ought to hear."
 

or

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:
"The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field. 
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. 
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? 
Where have the weeds come from?'
He answered, 'An enemy has done this.'
His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them. 
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
"First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn."'"

 

 

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 

We do not live in a perfect world. This is by no means the fault of God, but ours through Original Sin and free will. Turning away from God, we welcomed evil into this world. Created in God’s image, we continuously struggle with the temptation to be gods ourselves and to be masters of our own destiny. Even those who profess to be Christian or believe in some sort of higher power, are conflicted in their thoughts, self-justifying their focus on material things and the gaining of wealth, pointing out that these things can be considered gifts from God, even when the words of Jesus, “You cannot serve both God and mammon,” obviously say otherwise. Billions of people, living their lives while not even understanding where it came from or being thankful for being given that same precious gift. Chaos is defined as, “the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a complex natural system.” The complex, natural system can be seen as God’s creation where there was complete predictability until we became its steward and then turned away from God.

 

God is perfect. What He created was perfect until we strayed and, since then, all His creation has paid the price. The good news is that there is nothing preventing us from repairing the damage that we have done, including within our own lives. Nothing that we say or do is permanent. We are not that powerful or important. Even more, we have an all-forgiving God that only asks for repentance and contrition. Psalm 51 says:

 

“My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit ;

a contrite and humble heart. O God you will not spurn.”

 

This is what God expects from us. The leveling of our pride, the surrendering of our free will, and the admission of our sins with an intent to go forth and sin no more.

 

Psalm 86 explains further,

 

“You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,

abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.

Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer

and attend to the sound of my pleading.”

 

We call and God responds. All the time. Our prayers are never ignored, and they are never left unanswered. We have a paraclete in the Holy Spirit to bring us wisdom, while we have an advocate in Jesus Christ. The way our God loves us and tends to our needs is unique and, at times, unbelievable to a point that we are more comfortable ignoring what God has to offer; choosing to continue our patterns of brokenness and rebellion up to the bitter end (which will be death in this life and the next).

 

The Apostle Paul tells us that the spirit of the Lord dwells within us and that it does for us that we cannot do for ourselves. This includes knowing what we truly want and need. Sometimes, we get in our own way and pursue things that are not in our best interest. These things are usually grounded in the physical and are the focus of one of our deeper, more carnal desires. God can see beyond these things and the Spirit has the capability to lift us out of our drudgery and back into the light; a new life transformed by the presence of God who loves us so much.

 

It must be remembered that there are forces working against us and God in this world. These are the weeds that Jesus refers to in His parable: people who serve this world and all its materialistic rewards. Living with us, these weeds represent all peoples who oppose us and God. We may live among them, but we never have to become like them. Though we might have interactions with them, we can remain separate and safe from them by keeping our focus on Jesus Christ and let the Spirit inside of us be our guide. Their presence should not be a surprise. All of us are aware of certain people in our lives that, sometimes through no fault of their own, are toxic for us and draw us further away from Jesus Christ instead of closer. This is where we must make a choice of what is better for us: a life with Jesus Christ and conducting ourselves rightly in relation to our relationship with Him, or a life with those who embrace things of the flesh, dragging themselves and anyone they join with to destruction.

 

Our faith and our relationship with Jesus Christ will guide us in the correct direction to avoid the pitfalls of this world, comfort us when we are sorrowful, and lift us up even higher when we are joyful. These positive actions will lead to other actions and will indeed help us grow. We become the mustard seed as we go forth building up the Kingdom of God here on this earth. There will be a point where some will be left behind. This will be because of their choices and ultimately a choice to embrace free will. We should choose against that and for an all-loving God who wants to participate with us in this this life of ours.

 

We gave everybody and everything a chance, what about God?

 

Deacon Tom

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 103

Reading 1

Isaiah 55:10-11

Thus says the LORD:
Just as from the heavens
the rain and snow come down
and do not return there
till they have watered the earth,
making it fertile and fruitful,
giving seed to the one who sows
and bread to the one who eats,
so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
my word shall not return to me void,
but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.
 

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 65:10, 11, 12-13, 14

R. (Lk 8:8) The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have visited the land and watered it;
greatly have you enriched it.
God's watercourses are filled;
you have prepared the grain.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
Thus have you prepared the land: drenching its furrows,
breaking up its clods,
Softening it with showers,
blessing its yield.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
You have crowned the year with your bounty,
and your paths overflow with a rich harvest;
The untilled meadows overflow with it,
and rejoicing clothes the hills.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
The fields are garmented with flocks
and the valleys blanketed with grain.
They shout and sing for joy.
R. The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.
 

Reading 2

Romans 8:18-23

Brothers and sisters:
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us. 
For creation awaits with eager expectation
the revelation of the children of God;
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. 
We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;
and not only that, but we ourselves,
who have the firstfruits of the Spirit,
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
 

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower.
All who come to him will have life forever.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
 

Gospel

Matthew 13:1-23

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore. 
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
“A sower went out to sow. 
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up. 
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. 
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots. 
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. 
But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. 
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The disciples approached him and said,
“Why do you speak to them in parables?” 
He said to them in reply,
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted. 
To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich;
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 
This is why I speak to them in parables, because
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. 
Isaiah's prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:
You shall indeed hear but not understand,
you shall indeed look but never see.
Gross is the heart of this people,
they will hardly hear with their ears,
they have closed their eyes,
lest they see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their hearts and be converted,
and I heal them. 

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
and your ears, because they hear. 
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
longed to see what you see but did not see it,
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

"Hear then the parable of the sower.
The seed sown on the path is the one
who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it,
and the evil one comes and steals away
what was sown in his heart.
The seed sown on rocky ground
is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy. 
But he has no root and lasts only for a time. 
When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word,
he immediately falls away. 
The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word,
but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word
and it bears no fruit. 
But the seed sown on rich soil
is the one who hears the word and understands it,
who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
 

or

Matthew 13:1-9

On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. 
Such large crowds gathered around him
that he got into a boat and sat down,
and the whole crowd stood along the shore. 
And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying:
"A sower went out to sow. 
And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,
and birds came and ate it up. 
Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. 
It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched,
and it withered for lack of roots. 
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. 
But some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. 
Whoever has ears ought to hear."

 

 

 

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

 

Throughout Sacred Scripture water and bread have been used in a symbolic sense to emphasis the nurturing effect the words of God and His presence can have on our lives. Jesus called himself the bread of life and offered living water to the woman at the well, to indicate what He was indeed offering her, which was the pathway to salvation and everlasting life. Through Isaiah, God indicates that He is a continued presence throughout His creation and He does indeed have a nurturing effect. His presence in our lives can have the same effect, causing us to grow and transform into something better, something that He intended us to be from the very beginning of our existence. Being separate from Him, or ignoring what He has to say, denies us this nurturing impact He could have on us. Everything that God says and does has a particular purpose. We also have a particular purpose. We were created out of love to love and be loved. Through this act of receiving and giving love, we can then experience our lives the way that God intended us to live it. Through this process, our true potential and who we really are can finally be realized. Getting to know and understand God, enables us to get to know ourselves. We can finally understand who we are and where we are going in this life. Letting God do His work inside of us and responding to Him molding us and guiding us is key to fulfilment.

 

The Apostle Paul in his letter today describes our souls longing for God, literally groaning along with all of creation for redemption. This is the innate “longing for God,” that the philosopher Rene Descarte describes all of us having. We also read about this in Sacred Scripture:

 

Psalm 62 says,

 

“ O God, you are my God, for you I long;

for you my soul is thirsting.

My body pines for you

like a dry, weary land without water.

So I gaze on you in the sanctuary

to see your strength and your glory.”

 

Psalm 42 gives us,

 

“As the deer longs for streams of water, so my soul longs for you, O God."

 

Here again we have the presence of life-giving water that only comes from God. Just as our physical bodies want for water, our souls want for its creator and father, who is God. We have the capability to acknowledge this or ignore it; have it influence our lives or not.

 

The way that we react to the presence of God’s words and essence is entirely up to us. Jesus presents this in His parable today and in the conversation with His disciples. Earlier, Jesus was speaking to large crowds, so massive that He had to speak from the deck of a boat. They were drawn to His words and His presence. We also read that there were times when He left to get rest and pray, only to be followed as the people longed for more. They were being nurtured by the Living Water that Jesus offered and the spiritual food of His words. When asked about speaking in parables, Jesus indicated that understanding the parables required revelation. There were those who would be ignorant of the words while others, like His disciples, would understand them. This can go back to Jesus’ teaching,

 

“ Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who seeks will find, everyone who asks will receive, and anyone who knocks, the door will be answered.”

 

In order to understand them, we have to be searching and asking. This action defines the pursuit of wisdom through knowledge, understanding, and experience. Jesus does not refuse anyone, but it takes action on our part: in order to find, we have to seek. To ask, we have to know who we are asking something from and why. The more we commune with Jesus, the more familiar we will become with Him. Our relationship with Him with then naturally deepen. Jesus describes this effect in the Gospel reading today with the Parable of the Sower. The effect of His words will impact people differently. It is entirely up to us how we receive what is being said, how we process it, and how it impacts our lives. We can resist, rebel, ignore, or accept and love them.

 

Merely making this decision does not mark the end. It is only the beginning. Constant maintenance is necessary to continue our development and our relationship with Jesus. The deeper we go, the better it will be for us. Psalm One tells us,

 

“Blessed is the man who does not walk

in the counsel of the wicked,

 

Nor stand in the way* of sinners,

nor sit in company with scoffers.a

 

Rather, the law of the LORD* is his joy;

and on his law he meditates day and night.

 

He is like a tree

planted near streams of water,

that yields its fruit in season;

Its leaves never wither;

whatever he does prospers.”

 

Living by God’s words and meditating on them, brings only comfort and prosperity. It bears fruit within our soul, nurtures us, and helps us grow. The more we receive, the more we will be given. Saint Faustina gave us a vision of Jesus’ Divine Mercy, pouring out into God’s creation constantly. In order to receive it, we just have to be open to it. From there, only good things will happen. Let us all receive God’s comfort and love, welcoming Him in so Jesus’ words can be planted in our hearts to grow.

 

Deacon Tom