Scott Hahn with David Scott
God is always teaching His people, we hear in this week’s First Reading.
And what does He want us to know? That He has care for all of us, that though He is a God of justice, even those who defy and disbelieve Him may hope for His mercy if they turn to Him in repentance.
This divine teaching continues in the three parables that Jesus tells in the Gospel today. Each describes the emergence of the kingdom of God from the seeds sown by His works and preaching. The kingdom’s growth is hidden—like the working of yeast in bread; it’s improbable, unexpected—as in the way the tall mustard tree grows from the smallest of seeds.
Again this week’s readings sound a note of questioning: Why does God permit the evil to grow alongside the good? Why does He permit some to reject the Word of His kingdom?
Because, as we sing in Sunday’s Psalm, God is slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
He is just, Jesus assures us—evildoers and those who cause others to sin will be thrown into the fiery furnace at the end of the age. But by His patience, God is teaching us—that above all He desires repentance, and the gathering of all nations to worship Him and to glorify His name.
Even though we don’t know how to pray as we ought, the Spirit will intercede for us, Paul promises in Sunday’s Epistle. But first we must turn and call upon Him, we must commit ourselves to letting the good seed of His Word bear fruit in our lives.
So we should not be deceived or lose heart when we see weeds among the wheat, truth and holiness mixed with error, injustice and sin.
For now, He makes His sun rise on the good and the bad (see Matthew 5:45). But the harvest draws near. Let’s work that we might be numbered among the righteous children—who will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father.
Pope Benedict XVI
Angelus, July 17, 2011
The Gospel parables are brief accounts that Jesus uses to proclaim the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. Using imagery from situations of daily life, the Lord “wants to show us the real ground of all things…. He shows us… the God who acts, who intervenes in our lives, and wants to take us by the hand” (Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, English edition, Doubleday, 2007, p. 192).
With this kind of discourse the divine Teacher invites us to recognize first of all the primacy of God the Father: Wherever he is absent, nothing can be good. He is a crucial priority for all things. Kingdom of Heaven means, in fact, lordship of God and this means that his will must be adopted as the guiding criterion of our existence.
The subject of this Sunday’s Gospel is, precisely, the Kingdom of Heaven. “Heaven” should not be understood only in the sense that it towers above us, because this infinite space also takes the form of human interiority. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to a field of wheat to enable us to understand that something small and hidden has been sown within us which, nevertheless, has an irrepressible vital force. In spite of all obstacles, the seed will develop and the fruit will ripen. This fruit will only be good if the terrain of life is cultivated in accordance with the divine will.
For this reason in the Parable of the Weeds [tares] among the good Wheat (Mt 13:24-30). Jesus warns us that, after the owner had scattered the seed, “while men were sleeping, his enemy” intervened and sowed weeds among the wheat. This means that we must be ready to preserve the grace received from the day of our Baptism, continuing to nourish faith in the Lord that prevents evil from taking root. St Augustine commenting on the parable noted “many are at first tares but then become good grain”, and he added: “if these, when they are wicked, are not endured with patience they would not attain their praiseworthy transformation” (Quaest. septend. in Ev. sec. Matth., 12, 4: PL 35, 1371).
Dear friends, the Book of Wisdom — from which today’s First Reading is taken — emphasizes this dimension of the divine Being and states: “Neither is there any god besides you, whose care is for all men…. For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all” (Wis 12:13, 16). And Psalm 86 [85] confirms it: “You, O Lord, are good and forgiving, abounding in steadfast love to all who call on you” (v. 5).
Hence if we are children of such a great and good Father, let us seek to be like him! This was the aim Jesus set himself with his preaching; indeed, he said to those who were listening to him: “You… must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48). Let us turn with trust to Mary, whom we invoked yesterday with the title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel so that she may help us to follow Jesus faithfully, and so live as true children of God.
Homily attributed to Saint Macarius of Egypt
Spiritual Homilies, no. 51
‘An enemy has done this.’
I am writing to you, my brothers, so you might know that, since the day when Adam was created until the end of the world, the Evil One wages war against the saints without respite (Rev 13,7)… They are few, however, who realize that this destroyer of souls lives with them inside their bodies, close to the soul. It is there that they feel distress and there is no one on earth to comfort them. That is why they look to heaven and place all their expectation there, waiting to receive something within themselves. And by means of this strength and thanks to this armor of the Spirit (Eph 6,13), they shall overcome. For truly, it is from heaven that they acquire a strength hidden from the eyes of the flesh. So long as they seek God with all their heart, God’s strength constantly comes in secret to their assistance… It is precisely because they are sensitive to their weakness and are unable to overcome that they so ardently beg for God’s armor and, thus clothed for the fight with the weapons of the Spirit (Eph 6,13), they become victorious…
You should know, then, beloved brethren, that in all those who have prepared their soul to provide good soil for the heavenly sowing, the enemy makes haste to sow his tares… Know also that those who do not seek the Lord with all their heart are not tempted by Satan in so manifest a way; rather, it is in hidden ways and more by trickery that he tries… to push them away from God.
But now, brothers, take heart and don’t be afraid of anything. Don’t allow yourselves to be frightened by the imaginations stirred up by the enemy. Don’t give in to a confused restlessness in prayer by multiplying unnecessary petitions, but receive the Lord’s grace with contrition and repentance… Take heart, be comforted, hold fast, concern yourselves with your souls, persevere in prayer with all zeal… For all those who seek God in truth will receive divine strength in their soul and, in receiving this heavenly unction, they will feel within themselves the taste and sweetness of the world to come. May the peace of the Lord, that peace which was with all the holy fathers and kept them safe from every temptation, be also with you.
Pope Francis
Angelus Sunday, July 23, 2017
Dear Brothers and Sisters, Good morning!
Today’s Gospel reading offers three parables through which Jesus speaks to the crowds about the Kingdom of God. I will focus on the first: that of the good wheat and the weeds, which illustrates the problem of evil in the world and highlights God’s patience (cf. Mt 13:24-30, 36-43). How much patience God has! Each one of us too can say this: “How much patience God has!”. The narrative takes place in a field with two antagonists. On one side is the master of the field, who represents God and who sows good seed; on the other is the enemy, who represents Satan and scatters weeds.
As time passes, the weeds grow among the wheat, and the master and his servants express different opinions regarding this fact. The servants would like to intervene and uproot the weeds; but the master, who is concerned above all with saving the wheat, is against this, saying: “No; lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them” (v. 29). With this image, Jesus tells us that in this world good and evil are so intertwined that it is impossible to separate them and eradicate all evil. God alone can do this, and he will do so at the Last Judgment. With its ambiguities and its composite character, the present situation is the field of freedom, the field of Christian freedom, in which the difficult exercise of discernment is made between good and evil.
This field then, involves reconciling, with great trust in God and in his providence, two seemingly contradictory approaches: decision and patience. Decision is that of wanting to be good wheat — we all want this — with all our might, and thus keeping away from the evil one and his seduction. Patience means preferring a Church that acts as leaven in the dough, that is unafraid to sully her hands washing her children’s clothes, rather than a Church of “purists” who presume to judge ahead of time who will be in the Kingdom of God and who will not.
Today the Lord, who is Wisdom incarnate, helps us to understand that good and evil cannot be identified with neatly defined areas or specific human groups: “These are the good, those are the bad”. He tells us that the boundary line between good and evil passes through the heart of each person; it passes through the heart of each of us, that is: We are all sinners. I would like to ask you: “Whoever is not a sinner raise your hand”. No one! Because we are all sinners, all of us are. Jesus Christ, with his death on the Cross and his Resurrection, has freed us from the slavery of sin and given us the grace to journey in a new life; but along with Baptism he also gave us Confession, because we all need to be forgiven for our sins. Looking always and only at the evil that is outside of us means not wanting to recognize the sin that is also inside us.
Then Jesus teaches us a different way of looking at the field of the world, of observing reality. We are called to learn God’s time — which is not our time — and also God’s “gaze”: thanks to the beneficial influence of uneasy anticipation, what were weeds or seemed to be weeds can become a good product. It is the reality of conversion. It is the prospect of hope!
May the Virgin Mary help us to accept, in the reality that surrounds us, not only filth and evil, but also good and beauty; to unmask the work of Satan, but above all to trust in the action of God who fertilizes history.
After the Angelus:
Dear brothers and sisters, I have been following with trepidation the grave tension and violence taking place these days in Jerusalem. I feel the need to express a heartfelt appeal to moderation and dialogue. I invite you to join me in praying that the Lord may inspire in everyone the goals of reconciliation and peace.
I greet all of you, faithful of Rome and pilgrims from various parts of the world: families, parish groups, associations. In particular, I greet the Faithful of Munster, Ireland; the Franciscan Sisters of Saint Elizabeth (“Bigie”); the lyrical symphonic choir of Enna; the young people of Casamassima who have performed volunteer service in Rome.
My thoughts and encouragement go to the young participants attending the “Cantiere Hombre Mundo”, who are committed to bearing witness to the joy of the Gospel in the most impoverished peripheries on every continent.
I wish everyone a happy Sunday. Please do not forget to pray for me. Enjoy your lunch! Arrivederci!
