Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time 'A'

Saturday July 16, 2011

This homily was first posted in July of 2008.

Saint, Sinner or Both?

My maternal grandfather was a farmer—of sorts. Born in Brooklyn when farmlands could still be found, his mother abandoned his father and their children when ‘Pop’ was still a young boy. He was sent by his father to an orphanage operated by a Methodist minister in Millstone New Jersey where the farmlands were a-plenty. At the age of emancipation he moved to Jersey City for gainful employment. Even in those days, farmhands didn’t earn enough to support a family.

Although he never became a professional farmer, Pop Mooney’s boyhood days on the farm in Millstone gave him unique instincts and talents enjoyed only by professional growers. He could uproot trees and move the earth with the strength of a man twice his size. His gardens were worthy of any in the garden state. They were his pride and joy—tomatoes, corn, string beans, carrots, beets, peppers, radishes, parsley—a veritable victory garden. But he didn’t grow wheat! It’s not a native New Jersey crop. But I do remember his pointing to the winter rye, which, as wheat in its early stages, looks like rich green grass but the weeds tend to camouflage themselves among the rye. Pop knew the difference!

Although ‘Pop Moon’ as we was affectionately called, remained Catholic all his life, he was quick to weave Bible passages into his daily commentaries on life’s events, thanks to his Methodist foster father, and was alert to see the creative hand of God in nature and in all the circumstances of his life.

Somehow, I never inherited the instincts of my grandfather. I can still remember giving potted weeds to my mother to be placed among her treasured plants, which she accepted graciously despite her hay fever. A sacrificial gesture on her part for sure.

Matthew’s rendering of Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the weeds is a simple but meaningful metaphorical image of the dominion of God. The parable has two lessons:

First, there is room in God’s garden for everyone, saint and sinner and sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. In fact there is a saint and sinner in all of us. In the final analysis, judgement must be left to God.

Secondly, there is evil in the world. People are not inherently evil but people—sometimes good people—do evil things for a variety of reasons. Some because of the evil done to them; others because they were never affirmed in their inherent goodness. “God does not make junk!” Still others for some unknown reason, have been deceived into a warped view of the world. Some of these present themselves as ‘religious people,’ but their religion is distorted.

There is indeed evil in the world but the worst kind of evil is disguised—the wolf in sheep’s clothing. This is the evil has penetrated the most noble of religious ideals evidenced in the racism that pervaded Christian Europe centuries ago and even our own country decades ago. We see it once again in the distorted thinking of some adherents to Islam, though certainly not all. We see it in the rape of children and the greed of executives who through trickery and deceit, rob employees and investors of their just compensation and future security.

”’Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’”

But sometimes the enemy is within and goes unrecognized, thus Jesus’ response to the servant’s request, ”’Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ … ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

In other words, time will tell where virtue lives and truth flourishes and God will be the final judge.

There is yet another lesson in the second parable about the mustard seed. Although it is not really the smallest of all seeds that grows into the largest tree—the Cypress seed is smaller and the Cypress tree is larger—nevertheless, Jesus’ intent was to stretch the simile to challenge the Pharisees who considered the strength of the Jews equal to the Cypress trees of Lebanon.

The mustard tree is really a large bush and not all that attractive but it attracts all kinds of birds who come and nest in its branches to feast on its seeds. This is what the dominion of God is like. Get the point?

We Catholics are a diverse group of every race and nations, saint and sinner; messy at times but which attracts all kinds of birds who nest within its branches to feed on the seed of God’s word.

Those who persevere in faithfulness to God are those who commit themselves not to be successful but to be faithful. I think that commit was first made many years ago by Mother Teresa.

An idea that begins with one person can change the direction of civilization. A witness to truth must begin with one individual but can spread very rapidly to thousands. But words are not as strong a witness as the actions of the just. But Mother Teresa did more good with her hands than with her mouth. Her life was a living proclamation of the Gospel.

It may take a long time to distinguish one voice from another and separate the good from the bad, but eventually we find our call and at St. Paul assures us in his letter to the Romans, the Spirit intercedes for us with God and we finally get it right.

This little verse written in Spanish, is both a poem and a prayer, which may console the believer in the pursuit of God’s way:

Nada te turbe,_Let nothing disturb you,
Nada te espante,_Let nothing dismay you,
Todo se pasa, _All things pass,
Dios no se muda,_God never changes,
La paciencia,_Patience attains,
Todo lo alcanz,_All that it strives for.
Quien a Dios tiene,_The one who has God,
Nada le falta_Wants for nothing,
Sol Dios basta,__God alone is sufficient.

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