7-19-26- 16th Sunday Ordinary Time
As we look at the gospel for this Sunday there's a lot of similarity with the gospel from last Sunday. In fact, we might call both gospels agricultural gospels, since they deal with the growing of foods for the service of people. Last week we talked about the condition of the soil and how the seed responds to that soil depending upon where it lands. For example, if it lands on good soil then, it will make roots and yield an abundant harvest. However, if it lands on hard soil, it will be dried up by the sun, and the roots will never have a chance to be productive for the plants. This week we come to the planting of a field with wheat by a landowner. He plants his field and returns, home and goes to bed. And then in the middle of the night someone comes, an enemy, and plants weeds. There is a good chance that the weeds that were planted are known as bearded Darnel seeds. Bearded Darnell seeds are a toxic weedy ryegrass that closely mimics wheat. Historically considered a major agricultural pest, its seeds are highly poisonous to humans and livestock.1. Thus, trying to pull up the weeds, since they look like wheat, would probably disturb the wheat plants also. Hence the landowner tells his servants to do nothing now. At harvest time the darnel weed plant is more evident and can be more easily separated from the wheat plants. And thus, the wheat will be harvested without including any of this poisonous darnel plant mixed in with it. In both gospels, there is a period of discernment that is necessary before any action can happen. Last week, when the focus was on the soil in which the seed was planted, we were invited to discern what kind of soil exist within our soul and how ready is it to accept the words of God and Jesus, who is the sole the Word of God? Or is our soul so influenced by the situations of our life (i.e. health, employment, incarceration, divorce, addiction) that the seed of God’s word is often choked off before it can grow? And thus, we are left spiritually unhealthy. In this weekend 'gospel, the servants will have to discern which is the weed and which is the wheat. This most likely will be a slow and tedious process at the harvest time and the servants will have to be patient with themselves and careful as they try to separate the wheat from the darnel. Such a process reminds us that often we must be patient without ourselves in terms of our own spiritual growth so that the seed that God plants in our souls will have time to grow to fruition. That is why frequent reception of the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and reconciliation are so important for the health of our souls and this need for patience. Also, our readings stress the importance of developing our prayer life as means of learning how better to be patient with ourselves and our spiritual growth. We also need to separate out those things in our lives which are destructive to our spiritual health such as pride or being judgmental. Many years ago, as a young lawyer, Mohandas Gandhi of India appeared in court one day to argue his very first case. When the time came to question a witness, fear overwhelmed him. Later he wrote, “My heart sank into my boots… My head was reeling… I could think of no question to ask.” Unable to continue, he refunded his client’s fee and left the courtroom in embarrassment. Had someone judged that young lawyer on that one afternoon, they would have reached an understandable conclusion that he would be a poor substitute for a lawyer. Yet as the decades past, he developed not only a better understanding of law, but more than that he became an outstanding statesman. Eventually, he was instrumental in achieving freedom from British dominion over India and the establishment of his country as an independent nation.2 And so, our readings this weekend, especially the second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans gives us great hope for our own spiritual development and reliance on God and the gift of His spirit in our lives- “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches the heart knows what the intention of the Spirit is, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.” (Romans 8:27) Some years ago the theologian, Teilhard de Chardin, was at a particularly low point in his life and as he prayed, he wrote the following prayer about the slow work of God in our lives and the need for patience with ourselves and with the work of the Spirit on our behalf.
Patient Trust
Above all, trust in the slow work of
God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new. And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time.
And so, I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually, let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.
Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new
spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
1. https://www.bing.com/search-darrnel+seed 2.Voicings.com/“Before the Harvest” 3.https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/
