Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The Book of Wisdom provides the first reading for Mass this weekend. Wisdom is the name not only of this book of the Old Testament, but also describes a set of writings in it. Collectively, their purpose is to convey in human language and for situations in human life the wisdom that can come only from God.
The admission that humans are limited is an important starting point for the book of Wisdom and for all the Scriptures. We cannot understand everything. We cannot see everything. Even what we see at times, and perhaps more often than not, is distorted and blurred.
So, we need God. We simply cannot survive without divine wisdom. God offers this in the revealed Scriptures.
This weekend’s reading salutes God, the almighty, the perfect and the perfectly just and all knowing. The reading is highly poetic and lyrical, almost as if it were a hymn.
Marvelous for us, this supreme, perfect God assists us despite our limitations. We have nothing to want or to fear if we listen to God, the source of all wisdom.
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is the source of the brief second reading for this weekend’s Mass.
Stressed here are our weaknesses and limitations. Even our prayers are weak, all too often handicapped by our sinfulness and selfishness. God, however, supplies. As disciples of Jesus, born again in the life of Jesus, we speak with the life and strength of the Holy Spirit.
For the last reading, the Church presents a parable from St. Matthew’s Gospel, using agricultural imagery. At the time of Jesus, the planting and growing of crops and or the keeping of herds were popular livelihoods. This familiar story of the sower who planted good seeds in his field would have been understood by all who heard the Lord speak.
Jesus says that the story resembles the kingdom of God. Each component—the landowner, the slaves, the enemy—fit into the overall picture.
To recall the story, at night, an enemy comes and sows the seeds of weeds in the landowner’s field, tended by slaves. In time, both grain and weeds come forth.
One is good, the other bad. God will separate the good from the bad. He will decide.
Another parable follows. It is the story of a mustard seed, which is very small. Although only a seed, it has the potential of life and growth. In time, it becomes a great tree.
Finally, Jesus gives the Apostles a special and much more detailed lesson. He explains the parable.
Reflection
An important first step in learning about Christianity is to accept the Church’s doctrine of original sin and its ongoing effects upon all people. God created everyone and vested free will in each.
Some, with the help of God grace, use this will to be loyal to God. Others choose disloyalty.
So, in God’s creation, people are ultimately divided between saints and sinners, blooming plants or useless weeds. Weeds are the fruit of sin.
In the end, God will right all wrongs. Justice will prevail. In the meantime, all are invited to realize that faith is a seed within them, planted by God, who gives us the grace we need to nourish and protect it and see it come to full bloom at the harvest.
Each person can allow and assist the seed of faith within them to grow to maturity, which is personal sanctity and final reward with God in heaven. Each person may also reject God according to the free will given by him to everyone.
The possibilities are monumental. To do good, and all that it entails, or to bring evil and disaster into their lives.
God’s kingdom is filled with life and reward. But it is not forced upon us. God does not invade our souls. We must choose God, but we often endure life among the weeds. †