30th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 13:36-43): ‘The virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’. (2024)

30th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 13:36-43): ‘The virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’.

Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)Matthew 13:36-43As the darnel is gathered up and burnt, so it will be at the end of time.

Leaving the crowds, Jesus went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has ears!’

Gospel (USA)Matthew 13:36-43Just as the weeds are collected now and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.

Reflections (6)

(i) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading of the interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the darnel acknowledges that all is not well with the world. We don’t need reminding that there is much evil in our world. However, it is not a case that the church is a field of goodness and all beyond it is a field of evil. This gospel of Matthew readily acknowledges that sin is to be found in the community of believers. Peter’s question, unique to Matthew, was a very relevant one for Matthew’s community, ‘Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ (Mt 18:21). In recent times, we have been made only two well aware of how the sins of some of the church’s most trusted members have been a source of enormous scandal for believers. We can easily make our own as a community of faith the words of Jeremiah in today’s first reading, ‘Lord, we do confess our wickedness… we have indeed sinned against you’. Yet, we can also make our own the words Jeremiah goes on to speak, ‘O our God, you are our hope’. The existence of evil, even in the holiest of places, is not a cause for disillusionment or despair. The Lord remains faithful to his flawed church and to his broken world. He continues to work among us to recreate us in his image through the power of the Holy Spirit. As Paul expresses it so succinctly in his letter to the Romans, ‘where sin increased, grace abounded all the more’ (Rom 5:20). There is a great onus on us all to co-operate with the Lord who is always striving to bring the good work he has begun in us to completion.

And/Or

(ii) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s gospel reading speaks of Jesus as the ‘sower of good seed’ who sows that good seed throughout the world. Those who allow that good seed to take root in their hearts are ‘the subjects of the kingdom’; they already belong to God’s kingdom on earth. Whenever people respond to the Lord’s call, they form a ‘beach head’ of the kingdom of God on earth. This is what the Lord desires for us all. The community of his disciples, the church, is to be that beach head of the kingdom of God on earth; it is to be the earthly expression of the goodness of the kingdom of heaven. Yet, the gospel reading also acknowledges another reality that is to be found in our world, what it terms ‘darnel’ or ‘weeds’, which is sown by the devil. The Lord’s good work in the world is opposed by evil forces. The gospels suggest that Jesus took the reality of evil in the world very seriously. He was also aware that it could infect his followers, the community of those who believed in him, which is why he taught us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil’. We shouldn’t need much convincing about the reality and power of evil in our world and, indeed, in the church and in our own lives. However, the gospel reading declares that evil will not ultimately have the last word. God will eradicate evil fully, but only at the end of time, when God’s kingdom fully comes. In the meantime, the Lord wishes to work in and through each of us to confront evil in all its forms, so that something of that final triumph of good over evil can become a reality in the here and now. In the words of Paul’s letter to the Romans, ‘Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’.

And/Or

(iii) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time.

The explanation of the parable of the wheat and darnel in today’s gospel reading suggests that, within our world, good will always sit alongside evil until the end of time. It is only beyond this present age that, in the words of the gospel reading, ‘the virtuous will shine like the sun’, with no darkness to obscure the light of their goodness. We are only too well aware of the presence of evil in our world, and, indeed, within the church and in our own hearts. Various religious movements have attempted to create a perfect society, an oasis of goodness in an evil world. Such movements can end up doing more harm than good to the people who get involved; they can easily project the darkness that is within themselves onto the world outside the movement. However, matters are never that black and white. The church is not a cult. In the language of the Second Vatican Council, we are a pilgrim people. We are on a journey towards that glorious virtuous state spoken of in the gospel reading. In this earthly life, we never reach the end of that journey. At every step of the journey we can make our own the confession of the first reading from the prophet Jeremiah, ‘Lord, we do confess our wickedness and our father’s guilt: we have indeed sinned against you’. Such a recognition of the lack of goodness in our lives does not discourage us because we are confident that in the words of today’s responsorial psalm, the Lord’s compassion hastens to meet us. Indeed, our realization and recognition that we are still on the way creates a space in our lives for the Lord to bring to completion the good work that he has begun in us. The gospels suggest that Jesus found it much easier to engage with those who were aware of their need of God’s mercy than with those who thought of themselves as morally superior to others.

And/Or

(iv) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

The question ‘Who is God?’ has intrigued curious people down through the centuries. Many different answers have been given to that question. Perhaps one of the most attractive answers from the Jewish Scriptures is to be found in today’s first reading. It declares God to be a ‘God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness’. This is the God revealed by Jesus in his teaching, his whole way of life, his death and his resurrection. The words used to speak of God there are thought provoking and reassuring, ‘tenderness, compassion, kindness, faithfulness’. When we encounter these qualities in someone we meet, we consider ourselves blest to be in their company. These are the people who are spoken of in the gospel reading as ‘the subjects of the kingdom’. They bring something of the kingdom of God to earth. The gospel reading realistically identifies a different kind of presence in our world, namely, ‘the subjects of the evil one’. We are only too well aware of the evil that is being constantly perpetuated by some people, and the painful consequences of such evil for others. We recognize clearly that the kingdom of God has not yet fully come into our world. Indeed, we know that it has not yet fully come into our own lives either. We often fall short of revealing in our lives those divine qualities of tenderness, compassion, kindness and faithfulness. Yet, because these are the qualities of the Lord and he has poured his Spirit into our hearts, we can confidently reach towards these wonderful life-giving qualities, knowing that they are attainable because of the help the Lord gives us. When we give expression to them in our lives, the kingdom of God draws near.

And/Or

(v) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah reflects the darker side of human existence. There is death in the countryside and hunger in the city. The religious leaders, prophets and priests, are at their wit’s end. Anguished questions rise up to God, ‘Why have you struck us down with no hope of cure?’ People’s legitimate hopes have been dashed, ‘We were hoping for peace, no good came of it! For the moment of cure, nothing but terror!’ Yet in the midst of such devastation and darkness of spirit, people have not lost hope in God, ‘O our God, you are our hope’. It can be difficult to keep hopeful faith in God when there seems no human reason for hope. Yet, so often the Scriptures inspire us to keep hoping and trusting in God even when, especially when, ‘we are in the depths of distress’, in the words of today’s responsorial psalm. In the gospel reading, Jesus acknowledges that all will not always be right with the world. What Jesus calls ‘the enemy’, those opposed to God’s good purposes, will sow darnel, seeking to kill off the good seed. Yet, Jesus assures us that in the end God’s good purposes will win out, ‘the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’. God is working and will continue to work through the glorious Son of Man to overcome the forces of evil and ensure the coming of God’s kingdom. Saint Paul expressed this conviction very succinctly, ‘where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more’. This is the basis of our hope. Hope is rooted not in anything human but in God’s life giving power, which, in the words of Paul, ‘is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine’.

And/Or

(vi) Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

There is a very striking statement in today’s first reading, ‘The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend’. It anticipates the words of Jesus, God in human form, to his disciples in the gospel of John, ‘I no longer call you servants. I call you friends’. Jesus was the clearest possible revelation of God’s desire to befriend all of humanity. According to the first reading, God has the qualities we long for in a good friend, tenderness, compassion, slowness to anger, kindness, faithfulness and a readiness to forgive. Jesus revealed these qualities of God fully and clearly. God, through Jesus, has befriended us and he waits for us to befriend him in return. When we open our lives to God’s love present in Jesus, when we remain in that love and then love others as we have been loved, we become what the gospel reading calls ‘good seed’ in the world. A community of beloved and loving disciples is a beachhead of the kingdom of heaven. It is the beginning of the answer to our prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come on earth, as it is in heaven’. Yet, the gospel reading also acknowledges that, alongside the good seed, there is ‘darnel’ in the world, sown by the evil one. We don’t need to be reminded of this reality. It easily becomes news, to such an extent that we can end up being quite discouraged. Yet, if we open our eyes we can also see the presence of all the good seed, those expressions in human form of the God of tenderness and compassion who has sent his Son to befriend us. The gospel reading assures that it is this reality that will win out in the end; evil will not ultimately prevail.

30th July >> Fr. Martin's Reflections / Homilies on Today's Mass Readings for Tuesday, Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time (Inc. Matthew 13:36-43): ‘The virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’. (2024)