16th Sunday, Year A: Homily by Fr. Emma. N. Asogwa

Theme: THE WHEAT (SEED) VERSUS THE WEED: MESSAGE FOR TODAY’S CHRISTIAN

• Readings: 1st R: Wis. 12: 13, 16–19 Resp. Ps.86 2nd R: Rom. 8: 26–27 Gospel: Matt. 13: 24–30

• INTRODUCTION:

• The Gospel reading of today (Matt. 13: 24–43) is a buildup of last Sunday’s. Jesus enunciates in quick successions, three important distinct but related parables but we shall concentrate on the first. He opens our eyes to the fact that the seed’s attack does not stop merely in the planting time (as we saw last Sunday) but that the growth and full maturing of the seed of God in us must suffer the militating forces of evil. (But if it is nurtured well and matures well, the growth would be miraculous — the other two parables). This is a message as well as a warning.

• Our interest this morning is just to earmark five major implications of Jesus’ parable of the Wheat and Tares especially for today’s Christian who must work out his salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2: 13) and amidst the vicissitudes of the devil’s battles. Upon these implications, we shall anchor other deeply spiritual and existential didactic nuggets that the other readings precipitate.

• 1. A MESSAGE/WARNING ON THE NEED TO WATCH OUR SEEDS.

• Goodness (pretty much as evil also) often comes as a seed, infectious and contagious, and given favorable conditions can blossom to unimaginable proportions. This is the connecting point in all three parables related in the Gospel of today. What is sown, whether good or bad, whether by God or by the enemy, are often the seeds. But the working of these seeds into fruitful harvest or tares are predicated on our own co-operation, whereby by our human efforts, we engender the flowering of these seeds. We must watch our seeds. We must watch what we allow to be sown into our lives. It is always unfortunate that it is always at the moment of relaxation; the moment of sleep, that the ugly seeds are sown. This is why the Lord advises us to watch and pray… (Matt. 26: 41). Indeed, the devil would always sow weed whenever we ‘sleep’. Sleep would mean any kind of relaxation or lack of ‘war consciousness’.

• 2. A MESSAGE/WARNING ON THE REALITY OF EVIL

• By this parable, Jesus wakes us to the reality of evil especially in our time and tides. It is folly to deny the presence of evil. Good and evil co-exist and often evil takes the guise of good. This co-habitation could be internal (the battle of good and evil that happens inside each and every one of us, in which it can be said that there is the sinner in the best of us, and the saint in the worst of us, depending on which one allows to thrive). It could also be external; the battle of good and evil that happens around us, within our social circus, our environment, Church, community, society, country etc.

• This realization compels us not just to watch our seeds but to watch our influences since what you keep company with can determine what accompanies you in life. Constant awareness of the reality of evil and devil around us makes us keep ourselves sensitive, prayerful, cautious and on guard, (1st Peter 5:8, Matt. 26: 41, 2nd Reading-Rom. 8: 26–27). This is why the opening prayers implores “that we be ever watching in keeping your {God’s} commandment”, avoiding occasions of sins especially as no sin is mechanical to the extent that it happens on us suddenly. No! Every sin begins somewhere and as already said, there is the germ of evil even in the best good and vice versa.

• The modern time is scourged with the gradual relapse of moral sanctity and the almost ‘compulsive’ contagion of immorality. {*peer influence/ cultism and occultism/ Yahoo plus/addictions to Indiam hemp}. These challenges graduate to the ‘principalities we wrestle against’ (Eph. 6: 12). No wonder, the biblical imperative to put on the whole armour of God as we have in the Scriptural pericle (Eph. 6: 10–18). In our world today, there is almost the compulsive contagion of evil and we are forced to ask ‘how can the young remain sinless?’ and the bible says it is by remaining true to his word.

• Christ does not promise us an easy life but a great life, not absence of war but victory with him, not easy peace but a triumphant warfare. Thus, he allows the seed and the weed to battle for the nutrients of the soil. We must realize that there are forces militating against our salvation and even though we should never emphasize the power of the enemy, we must live in that consciousness. These forces come from the devil, our flesh and the world.

• 3. A MESSAGE OF GOD’S GRACE OF SECOND CHANCE

• It is also a message on the mercy of God which gives us enough time to rethink and change. God’s justice does not come upon us at the instance of our failures. He allows us the grace of second chance and allows us to maximize the opportunity of the second chance just for our repentance (cf. 2nd Peter 3: 15). He sends his spirit to help us in our weaknesses (2nd R)

• Thus, Our God is full of mercy and compassion, slow to anger….(cf. Resp. Psalm 86). He would not allow his angels to weed out the tares until the end time. He is a God of second chance. We must learn to trust in His mercy and not condemn ourselves when we have not been condemned. As the 1st Reading extrapolates, He governs us with great lenience. In His sovereignty and great strength, He shows mercy and mildness in Judgment, and grants us repentance even after sin. We are in His care (Cf. 1st R.) (*dirty violin)

• 4. A MESSAGE ON PATIENCE AND TOLERANCE

• In this parable, the master asks his servants not to rush into weeding out the weeds lest good seeds are affected. This is a great message on the imperative of patience and tolerance and benefit of doubt. The Lord asks us not to rush into premature judgment. The Lord of mercy and compassion (1st Reading/ Psalm) asks us to be merciful in our judgment; to imitate Him by being kindly to our fellow men in judgment and action (cf. last but one sentence of 1st Reading). God indeed teaches us to be self-restrained in our show of power and supremacy over the weak and by so doing, imitate Him; to not rush into premature judgment; to give it time; to realize that there is a capacity for good even in the worst of sinners; to stop looking at people’s past but at people’s possibilities; not what they have done, but what they can be. All opportunities must be exhausted before the final judgment is left for God. The master’s response means that it is never possible to define the fate of a man until you see the end of his life, for a sinner today can be a saint tomorrow. That is why we are prevented from calling anybody a fool, for that would mean their life has come to naught. Only God can give such judgment, for only He knows the true end of every one of us. We must learn to delay judgment; to delay action lest we make mistakes; to give benefit of doubt. We must learn not to allow the ‘apparent’ weeds we see in people preclude our appreciation of their seeds. We must imitate our God in being patient with sinners. {*pop corn/two apples/wifi/dog}

• It is also often regrettably the case, that a weed is often a seed whose virtues have not been truly discovered and properly harnessed.

• 5. A MESSAGE/WARNING ON THE TRIUMPH OF GOD’S FINAL JUSTICE

• The gospel is also a warning that God’s second chances have a time limit. Indeed, as we often say, the grace of second chance carries with it the threat of final chance but the problem is that we do not know which is the final chance; the time of harvest.

• It tells us that there is judgment after our earth’s sojourn. It is a reminder that we must give account of our lives and that evil must be punished. Rom. 14: 12, Heb. 9: 27. Human life has a destination as much as it is itself a terminal disease.

• It is wisdom to think about what would become of us after here, knowing that there is reward for everything we do here. For Jesus, the fate of sin and ‘all causes of sin’ is the fire of hell. Am I a source of sin or promoter of good?

• CONCLUSION:

• In the final analysis, we must make a decision in the face of evil; to curse the darkness or keep mute and indifferent or light a candle.

• Though, we may not be able to obliterate evil in our world totally. In fact, as long as we are alive, evil would always co-exist with good. Yet we are called to rise up and fight evil; the evil in us, with us and around us. We must rise to DESIST from evil, RESIST the devil, INSIST on goodness, PERSIST in truth, EXIST for heaven’s values and ASSIST our God. Amen

• Show favour, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your GRACE, that made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever WATCHFUL in keeping your commands, through Christ our Lord. Amen (Opening Prayer)

• Happy Sunday beloved friends. Stay safe! Stay blessed.

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