16th Sunday of Ordinary Times
God’s Patience.....
Readings for:16th Sunday of Ordinary Times, Year A
Reading 1 Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Psalm Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Reading 2 Romans 8:26-27
Gospel Matthew 13:24-43
REFLECTIONS:… from Father Daniel
Theme of this Sunday: God’s Patience and our Impatience. We instinctively divide ourselves into good and evil, friends and enemies. The consequences of such a distinction is intolerance and a desire to solve immediately whatever tensions arise from them. Some ask God to intervene and jude and punish others. The readings today tell us that God does not do things like that. The first reading teaches us that he uses his power not to punish us, but to save us, he wants all of us to do likewise. The Gospel tells us to accept with peace of mind the presence of evil in the world, and invites us to recognize the weeds in our own hearts. It assures us that the love of God will one day destroy it. The second reading speaks of the Spirit that prays for us, beseeching the Father to destroy all evil. This prayer will certainly be heard.
In today’s Gospel, all three parables explicitly propose to tell us what the kingdom of God is like, and Jesus tells us about the presence of evil. God is patient with the behavior of those who ignore his laws. He gives people time to reform their lives, just as Jesus is patient with sinners. We really can’t see into the heart of another, but if we see someone who seems to us that they need God in their life, pray for them. That way we would be sharing in God’s patience, who waits for us to turn our lives over to Him.
When the German Christian reformers and founders of the protestant Lutheran Church, Martin Luther (1483-1546, former Catholic Priest) criticized Erasmus of Rotterdam for remaining in the Catholic Church despite its corruption, Erasmus answered him: “I put up with this Church, in the hope that one day it will become better, just as it is constrained to put up with in in the hope that one day I will become better.” The Church is a human Church full of shortcomings. This is no excuse for wrongdoing; it is simply a statement of fact. St. Augustine said, “IF we do not fall into certain sin we owe it to the grace of God.”
