27th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 13:24-30): ‘Let them both grow till the harvest’. (2024)

27th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 13:24-30): ‘Let them both grow till the harvest’.

Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 13:24-30Let them both grow till the harvest.

Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 13:24-30Let them grow together until harvest.

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “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.”’”

Reflections (5)

(i) Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

We are all familiar with weeds in our gardens. We have a tendency to root them out immediately. However, sometimes the weeds are so close to the shrub or flower that to take out the weed risks disturbing the plant. We sometimes have to let the weeds be for the sake of the plant. We are also aware in recent times that the flowers which weeds generate can be great pollinators for our bees. We are now being told not to be rooting out our dandelions so quickly and ruthlessly. Weeds are making a comeback! In the parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, the servants of the landowner wanted to pull up the weeds that had appeared among the wheat. However, the landowner himself was a more patient man. He was aware that pulling up the weeds could pull up some wheat as well and he advised letting both weed and wheat grow until harvest time, and then they could be separated. There is always a deeper meaning to Jesus’ parables. He wasn’t primarily talking about gardens or fields of wheat. After all, he began the parable with the words, ‘the kingdom of God may be compared to…’. Jesus was really talking about God and how God relates to us. He is suggesting that God can be patient with our weaknesses because God recognises that they are often closely aligned with our strengths. An angry person may have a passion for justice; a lazy person may be a great listener; an overly anxious person may be very dutiful and conscientious. God recognizes that we are all a mixture of wheat and weed, of good and evil, of strength and weakness and he is patient with our mixture. We need to be patient too, with ourselves and with others. In striving after a perfect garden, a gardener risks doing harm as well as good. In striving too hard to make ourselves perfect or, more worryingly still, to make others perfect, we risk doing as much harm as good. We need to learn to live with the mixture we and others are, while celebrating and working to enhance all that is good there.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

There is something of a contrast in this morning’s gospel reading between the farmer who sowed wheat seed in a field and his servants. When weeds started to appear among the wheat, the instinct of the servants was to dig up the weeds so as to have a field of pure wheat. The farmer’s instinct was different. He was more tolerant of the weeds. He suggested letting both wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest time, and then they can be separated. He was a patient man; he knew he would get his wheat without the weeds eventually. However, in the meantime, he could live with the weeds. He didn’t have the zeal of his servants to purify his field immediately, without waiting. In this parable Jesus was saying something about the kingdom of God and, more particularly, about the sign of that kingdom in our world, the community of his disciples, what we call the church. Jesus recognizes that the church will be a mixture of the good and the not-so-good up until the end of time, when all that is not of God will disappear. As individual disciples we too will remain a mixture of light and shade until we are fully conformed to the image of God’s Son in the next life. We are all the time trying to grow more fully into God’s Son. Yet, we have to accept that sin will always be part of our lives, this side of eternity. Like the farmer in the parable, the Lord is patient with us. We need to be patient with ourselves and with each other. This is not complacency; it is simply the realistic recognition that we are all a work in progress. God has begun a good work in our lives, and even if will never be completed in this life, God will bring that good work to completion in eternity. In the meantime, we try to create a space for God to work in our own lives and in the lives of others.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus in today’s parable was warning us against a premature separation of wheat from weed, of the good from the bad. He was saying that this kind of separation is really God’s work, not our work, and that it will happen at the end of time rather than in the course of time. Just as the servants in the parable would have been unable to distinguish the wheat from the weeds if they had been let loose, we do not always have the necessary insight to distinguish who is good and who is evil. We can get it terribly wrong; we only have to think of those innocent people who have been wrongly imprisoned. How often in our own personal lives have we judged someone harshly only to discover in time that we were very wide of the mark. The church itself has not always heeded the warning of Jesus about the dangers of premature separation. The inquisition was not in the spirit of the parable that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading. Too great a zeal to purify the wheat field risks doing more harm than good. A weed-free garden may be highly desirable, but the gospel today suggests that we may have to learn to live with weeds. We need to be patient with imperfection, in ourselves and in others. As we know only too well, life is not tidy. It is not like a well-manicured garden, in which order and harmony prevail. Each of us is a mixture of wheat and weed; we are each tainted by sin and yet touched by grace. Our calling is to grow in grace before God and others, as Jesus did. We look to him to help us to keep on turning from sin and growing in grace.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

It has often been said that our weaknesses are the shadow side of our strengths. The line between the good and the not-so-good in our lives can be very subtle. If we are over zealous in trying to root out what is not so good in someone’s life, or, indeed, in our own, we might damage what is good there too. In the parable Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading, the owner’s servants wanted to root out the weeds that had appeared among the wheat. The owner had to restrain them. This was not the time for such separation; it is not always easy to distinguish wheat from weeds at an early stage of growth, and both can be closely intertwined. The separation would come at harvest time. In the meantime, patience is needed with the weeds. Jesus may have been warning against a kind of religious zeal that is too eager to identify weeds, what is considered worthless, and to separate it out from wheat, what is considered good. Saint Paul showed some of this kind of religious zeal before he encountered Christ on the road to Damascus. He saw the followers of Jesus as weeds in the field of Judaism; they had to be identified and rooted out. He was blind to the presence of God among them. Sometimes, there is no mistaking evil and evil people. However, we can also get it terrible wrong and misjudge others. There are times when we may need to live with the weaknesses of others for the sake of their great strengths. We are all a mixture of wheat and weed. The Lord’s good work is ongoing in our lives, and yet it is always hindered by the presence of sin. Only beyond this earthly life will we be fully conformed to image of God’s Son. In the meantime, we need a certain amount of patience with ourselves and others, while seeking to grow more fully into the person of Christ and helping each other to do so.

And/Or

(v) Saturday, Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time

This morning we celebrate the first holy communion of Harriet. We are all delighted to share this special day with her. I made my own first holy communion in Saint Peter’s Church, Phibsboro, because I went to St. Peter’s National School which is very close to that lovely church. The first reading today is the reading we would usually have for the First Holy Communion Mass. It is the earliest account of the last supper that has come down to us, from Saint Paul. At that supper, Jesus gave himself, his body and blood, under the form of bread and wine, to his disciples. On the night before he died, he gave them the most precious gift he could give them, the gift of himself. At that supper, Jesus also told his disciples to ‘do this in memory of me’. In every generation, his disciples were to repeat what Jesus said and did at the last supper, so that he could continue to give himself to his followers as Bread of Life. This morning, for the first time, Jesus is giving himself to Harriet as Bread of Life. Just as parents brought their children to Jesus, according to the gospels, Harriet’s parents and grandparents have been bringing Harriet to Jesus since she was born. The first significant moment when they brought her to Jesus was on the day of her baptism. When they taught her to pray, when they brought her to the church for Mass or just to visit, they were bringing her to Jesus. In the language of today’s gospel reading, they have been sowing the good seed of the faith in her life. Because, Harriet has been brought to Jesus in all these ways, Jesus was been meeting with her, blessing her with his presence. This morning, Jesus is meeting with Harriet in a very special way. He is blessing her in a way he has never blessed her before. He is coming to her in a very personal way as the Bread of Life. He wants to come close to her, so that she can come close to him. Her relationship, her friendship, with Jesus will deepen because of what is happening today. Harriet’s first holy communion reminds us of how precious the gift of the Eucharist is for all of us. We have all received the Lord in Holy Communion many times, but we can treasure each time we receive Jesus as the Bread of Life, as if it was our first time. Harriet, this morning, you are helping us to appreciate the gift of Jesus, the Bread of Life, that we have all been given. On this special day in your life, we will be praying for you in a special way.

Fr. Martin Hogan.