Journeying With Weed

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 20

First reading Wisdom 12:13,16-19

There is no god, other than you, who cares for every thing,

to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly;

Your justice has its source in strength,

your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.

You show your strength when your sovereign power is questioned

and you expose the insolence of those who know it;

but, disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement,

you govern us with great lenience,

for you have only to will, and your power is there.

By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people

how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men,

and you have given your sons the good hope

that after sin you will grant repentance.

Psalm                                                                          Psalm 85:5-6,9-10,15-16

Second reading                                                      Romans 8:26-27

The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to
pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words,
and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the
pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.

Gospel                                                                     Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus put another parable before the crowds, ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’

Reflection by Fidji Rivera-Sarmiento

And no! Not that weed! Kayo ha! The kind of weed that was in today’s Gospel. Jesus talked about the “enemy” sowing weed on the wheat field.

Personally, I believe that the Lord is maybe trying to explain the necessity of difficult people in our lives. Or why we also become so difficult to others, as well as to ourselves! Most of the time, my greatest hindrance is me! We all are the weeds at one point or another.

“His slaves said to him,

‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?

He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds

you might uproot the wheat along with them. 

Let them grow together until harvest.”

Jesus continue parable-ing by saying that in the end, main sower will separate the wheat from the weeds.

“…Then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,

“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;

but gather the wheat into my barn.””

Can this be the symbolism of heaven and hell? Probably. Only God knows. The question now is, do we actually do good because we want to go to heaven? Definitely. Do we want eternal life with Jesus? Amen to that! But do we want to be virtuous SOLELY because of this? Of course not. We try to be upright each day as our way of thanksgiving to our Creator. We try to be kind to one another because we empathize and sympathize with our co-pilgrims in this earthly journey. We are not in a life triathlon. Life is not a race. Hindi contest ang buhay. We all are travellers with baggages, and yes, with some extra luggage, along the way. We become difficult to one another because of exhaustion, of hopelessness, of resentment. I continue to believe that we cannot be the best wheat for harvest unless we learn to live with the weeds in our midst and even inside our hearts.

So in trying times, may we not forget to look up to our compassionate Farmer and ask His help. You can survive it all! It could be your difficult family, your boss, your study partner, your next door neighbour, your colleague, or YOURSELF. Let’s trust the plan God has laid down for us. Let us trust the process. We are all predestined to be with our Creator. But the journey towards that is what living and being human is all about.

Prayer

Dear God,

I trust in You.  I trust Your plan. I trust your will. I trust that You have a purpose for this challenging person I’m praying for at this moment. I trust You and Your holy objective why You placed me in this situation. I pray for spiritual strength to carry on. Teach me to enjoy this life and to take every step with courage. Hold my hand in this pilgrimage, Lord. I face anything because I know You are with me.  Amen.