XVI Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Wis 12:13, 16-191
Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Rom 8:26-27
Mt 13:24-43

My brothers and sisters, today's Gospel of the Weeds and the Wheat is ultimately a parable about hope.  The fact that evil exists in the world; that sin abounds in the world is not a sign that God does not care or that God does not exist.  Rather it is in our weakness, our very dependence on God – especially in times of trial and tribulation – that we are given the opportunity to grow closer to God and rely less upon ourselves.  The evils that are visited upon us are opportunities for growth and repentance.  We have the blessing of time and space to be able to grow and correct our sinfulness.  Things don’t move forward without friction – and so the Cross that we pick up daily is not meant to be carried reluctantly, but embraced lovingly.  And this is where faith and hope are intimately tied together and will see us through to the end where all will be vindicated.

Justice belongs to God, not to us.  He is the source of justice. He will judge with clemency; with mercy and justice.  Therefore, do not hold resentment in your heart for those that are better than you or have more than you.  But look and see the blessings that are given to you.  God does not demonstrate His love for you by how much He blesses others; how silly that sounds! – You will never know how much He loves you until you start counting your own blessings, until you start praying, and desiring to follow His will.

To be upset at God for all the bad things and for the lack of good things happening in your life without praying and having a relationship with Him is like being angry and upset at a total stranger for not being your friend.  What did you do to get to know that stranger?  How have you tried to be his friend?  Even more so with our Lord – He desires an intimate friendship with us, but we have not taken those steps to befriend Him.  If you do not know how to pray then ask Him to help you to pray or learn how to pray!

You know…. there is a part of me that is glad that God is going to take care of business at the end of time.  I think you might have that feeling too.  All the sick people in this world – the ones who are so far gone, hopeless, and set it in their ways, and are just so evil – committing evil and heinous acts…. They’re gonna get their just punishment aren’t they?  Especially the ones that have wronged us; that they have trespassed against us and took advantage of us!  Yes, they will get what’s coming to them.  Am I right?

And then I realized that this is wrong.  All these “weeds” are still part of God’s creation and as long as they live here on this earth – there is still hope for them.  There is still an opportunity for them to change and transform their lives and hearts as best as they can towards God.  How have we reached out to reconcile and bring others to God – those “weeds” of the world?  How have we offered prayers and penances for their conversion – instead we have relegated them to be without hope and not worth our time to be saved.  This doesn’t sound very Christian.

Take care, too, for yourself – the last I checked, none of you are canonized saints – myself included.  I think that the real “kicker” in this Gospel today is that our Lord didn’t say who was the wheat and who are the weeds.  Wouldn’t it be unfortunate that all this time you thought you were a happy go lucky wheat when you were actually a weed?  There are times I feel like wheat and there are times that I am more a weed.  How sure are you, that when you die, you will not be a weed thrust into the fire?  The fire is not just reserved for the worst of the worst, but see what our Lord says [later] in the Gospel: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect our of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them in to the fiery furnace where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Hmmm… all who cause others to sin and all evildoers I think that might just cover us too – even on a good day.

Like I said earlier, the parable of the weeds and the wheat is a message of hope – not only for the world, but for our individual salvation.  We are not yet saints, but fortunately we are not yet condemned to the eternal fire.  As long as we are alive and in this world, we must pray and bring ourselves humbly before God – recognizing our sin – repenting and reconciling ourselves to His mercy.  Do not look down on or compare yourself with your neighbor, your spouse, or anyone else; but turn towards God to help you grow closer to Him.  God desires us all to be the wheat of the world and for others to become wheat.  It is why He gave us the Eucharist – Himself – to transform us to be more like Him.