PATIENCE WITH THE WEEDS
You feel happily surprised when after a mistake or an offense on your part the person you have hurt is patient with you and gives you a new chances. That is God’s way with us. He keeps believing in us. That is also the way God wants us to treat one another. Like him, we should be fully aware that people are neither entirely good nor completely bad, and that therefore we should be patient, forgiving, trusting and give time to heal. Let us thank our Lord for his patience and ask him to make us a bit like himself.
First Reading: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
But you, Lord, are free to destroy the nations you create. There’s no other God but you, and no one takes care of everybody the way you do. Your record is unimpeachable, so who would impeach you? Neither tyrant nor dictator dare accuse you of anything, let alone of unjust decisions and actions.
Since you’re justice itself, your sentences can’t be anything but just. You never punish the innocent. Your strength is the beginning of your justice; as we know, you’re the God of all, but you act sparingly with each and every one.
You show your resolve by not overreacting when your jurisdiction is challenged; you don’t blow your top every time your existence is denied.
On the contrary, you judge with clemency; you govern with indulgence even though you can dump us anytime you want! Your conduct on the judicial bench has taught your people that justice must always be kind; your conduct as a parent has given your children hope in forgiveness. You didn’t have to rank reconciliation over sin, but you did. You did indeed castigate the enemies of your people, and they deserved to die, but you gave them plenty of space to repent and change their wicked ways.
Second Reading: Romans 8:26-28
Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-43
He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’
“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
Another story. “God’s kingdom is like a pine nut that a farmer plants. It is quite small as seeds go, but in the course of years it grows into a huge pine tree, and eagles build nests in it.”
Another story. “God’s kingdom is like yeast that a woman works into the dough for dozens of loaves of barley bread—and waits while the dough rises.”
All Jesus did that day was tell stories—a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy:
I will open my mouth and tell stories;
I will bring out into the open
things hidden since the world’s first day.
Jesus dismissed the congregation and went into the house. His disciples came in and said, “Explain to us that story of the thistles in the field.”
So he explained. “The farmer who sows the pure seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, the pure seeds are subjects of the kingdom, the thistles are subjects of the Devil, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil. The harvest is the end of the age, the curtain of history. The harvest hands are angels.
“The picture of thistles pulled up and burned is a scene from the final act. The Son of Man will send his angels, weed out the thistles from his kingdom, pitch them in the trash, and be done with them. They are going to complain to high heaven, but nobody is going to listen. At the same time, ripe, holy lives will mature and adorn the kingdom of their Father.
“Are you listening to this? Really listening?
Prayer
Merciful and patient God,
you let your sun rise on both bad and good
and let the rain fall on the just and the wicked alike.
Thank you for your patience and your confidence.
Change our hearts,
give us the time to grow and mature
as disciples of Jesus your Son,
and dispose us to accept everyone
with your own untiring love and trust.
Make this the way your kingdom grows among us.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Video available at: bibleclaret.org
