Homily:
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle A
Friends,
we have been considering over these past weeks certain parables given by Jesus
which he used to give his disciples a vision of what the kingdom of heaven
would be like. These he gives so that
all of us—even the most simple among us—might have an idea of how this
mysterious kingdom that Jesus often proclaimed would look. Even the fact that Jesus uses the word
“kingdom” to describe it is a metaphor in itself, which separates it from other
forms of political organization and government.
In other words, it would be much different if Jesus said “the republic of heaven is like…” or “the empire of heaven is like…” In describing heaven as a kingdom, he sets it
apart and defines its basic structure.
Perhaps,
then, people were confused when Jesus proclaimed to them “the kingdom of heaven
is at hand.” At first, they might have
thought, “Great! We’ve been waiting for
Yahweh to send us the Messiah, the great King, who would establish God’s
lasting kingdom and subdue all of our enemies.”
Looking around, however, they quickly found that none of those things
were happening and so, perhaps, began to become perplexed. Thus, Jesus began to teach them in parables
what the kingdom—which, he proposed, was at hand—looks like. One of these—the parable of the wheat and the
weeds—was meant to dispel any confusion about why all of God’s enemies—that is,
those who do evil in the world—had not yet been subdued.
In
the parable, Yahweh is shown as the wise farm owner who, not knowing that his
enemy had sown weeds among his wheat, allows the weeds to grow alongside the
wheat until the time of the harvest, so as not to uproot any of the wheat along
with it. He knows that his wheat—that
is, the children of his kingdom—are strong and can withstand the presence of
weeds among them and still produce fruit.
Thus, he leaves the weeds among the wheat knowing that, ultimately, the
plans of the enemy will be squashed as the wheat is gathered into his barn
(that is, into heaven) and the weeds will be thrown into the fire to be burnt
(that is, in to the depths of hell). For
the children of Israel who were looking for a kingdom of heaven in which all of
their enemies would be subdued and purged from their midst, this parable provided
an explanation that demonstrated the wisdom of leaving evil doers and sinners
among them.
Still, there’s a problem with
the parable, right? In last week’s
parable, Jesus taught that the wheat sowed among weeds was choked and so
produced no fruit. This week, however,
he shows the wheat growing up with the weeds, but, instead of being choked,
they produce fruit anyway. So, how do we
reconcile what seems to be a contradiction?
Well, by remembering that these are metaphors and that metaphors are
always limited: they are meant to highlight certain aspects of things. In doing so, however, they often give an
incomplete picture.
In the parable of the sower
who sows indiscriminately, Jesus was teaching his disciples not to allow
themselves to get intertwined with those who do evil, for the evil doers will
choke out the divine life within them so that they produce no fruit. In the parable of the weeds sowed among the
wheat, however, he was teaching his disciples that it is possible to coexist
with those who do evil and still produce fruit.
In the first, Jesus is warning his disciples not to give themselves over
to the ways of those who do evil, because even their good intentions to be
righteous will fail because of the constant influence of evil around them. In the second, Jesus is saying that the mere
presence of those who do evil is not enough to keep the righteous ones from
producing fruit, because they have not given themselves over to evil ways. Both are true, in spite of what seems to be a
contradiction, and so contribute to create the rich image of the kingdom of
heaven which Jesus is trying to construct.
Still, there is one other
troubling thing in this parable. In it,
Jesus indicates that there are “children of the kingdom” and “children of the
evil one”. In doing so, he seems to say
that there are some who are destined for heaven and some who are destined for
hell. We believe, however, that God
creates all men good and destines them for heaven; and so why does Jesus say
that there are “children of the evil one”?
Contrary to what was commonly
believed at the time, Jesus was teaching that the kingdom of heaven would be
open to all, not restricted to one ethnic race, predestined by election beforehand
by God. This is why he proposed the
parable of the mustard seed. In it he
showed that the small seed of the kingdom would blossom into a large bush in
which all the birds of the air (an image for the many nations and ethnicities
of the world) would come and make their nest.
Being a member of either kingdom, therefore, is a matter of choice, not
predestination. Thus, the “children of
the kingdom” are those who have turned to the way of righteousness—in other
words, those who have chosen to
become children of the kingdom—and the “children of the evil one” are those who
have refused the way of righteousness, thus choosing
to become children of the evil one.
Now, because each of these has
chosen their way (instead of having been predestined to a certain way), each of
these can still choose the opposite way: the children of the kingdom to become
children of the evil one and the children of the evil one to become children of
the kingdom. Thus, Jesus proposes the
parable of the yeast, saying that the kingdom is like a little yeast that is
mixed in with dough. Having been mixed
in, it causes the whole batch of dough to rise.
With this parable, Jesus is indicating that the children of the kingdom,
mixed in with the children of the evil one, can lead them to convert and choose
the way of righteousness and so cause the greater growth and expansion of the
kingdom throughout the world.
My brothers and sisters, these
parables are reasons for us to have great hope while living this world. It is obvious that God, through his divine
grace dispensed to us in the Church, has raised up children of the kingdom throughout
the world. It is also obvious that the
evil one, who is the devil, has stolen from the children God has raised up men
and women who have given themselves over to evil, thus becoming children of the
evil one. All of us, I suspect, would be
glad to see this evil banished from our midst.
As we can see, however, it is not God’s plan to act in an outwardly
powerful way to accomplish this. Rather,
he leaves the children of the evil one among us; and this for two reasons: 1)
because uprooting those who do evil could cause some of the weaker ones among
the righteous to be uprooted, too; and 2) because he longs to see the children
of the evil one converted to become children of the kingdom.
Therefore, we, who consider
ourselves to be children of the kingdom, have some work to do. We are called to be yeast in the midst of the
world: glorifying God in our prayer and in our work so that those who have
given themselves over to be children of the evil one would be converted and the
kingdom of heaven would grow and expand throughout the world. This is the task given to us as disciples and
there is no more worthy work than this in the world. In this Eucharist, therefore, let us give
thanks for the grace to be children of the kingdom of heaven; and, strengthened
by it, let us take courage and embrace this work so that our king, Jesus
Christ, may truly reign among us.
Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – July 22nd
& 23rd, 2017
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