Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for July 13, 2008
Liturgical Year A- Cycle II
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. Patrick Duffy
 Topic: Being the Good Sower
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Reading II

Romans 8:26-27
Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.  And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.



Gospel
Mt 13:24-30
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.  While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.  When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.  The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?  Where have the weeds come from?' He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' 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; 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."
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Our Lord gives us stories and these stories enlighten us about the mystery of His kingdom.  With these stories, we are able to use our imagination more of how God works with us, how He loves us, and how He gives us His word. 
 
Each of us can relate to the story of the sower, the wasteful sower, the prodigal sower that throws the seed all over the place.  How many of us have experienced seeds on our paths that we ignored, that we walked over?  How many have been choked, allowed the seeds of grapes to be choked?  How many of us have experienced the conversion experience when seeds grow to beautiful, into our faith as a gift from God.  If that’s the way seeds work in our life, God’s word, God’s grace, His virtues have received as being one of His children, if that’s the way it works in our life, we’re compelled to look at each other the same way.  We tend to pay attention to the drama that has gone on in our hearts and ignore the pain and drama that goes on in each others’ hearts.
 
Now other people experience the germination of these seeds in a different way than us.  As you know, there are some seeds that have to burn, they have to be in a forest fire before they can germinate.  Some seeds have to freeze or be in a cold climate, be in a winter for a couple of months before they will germinate and these seeds live among us.  Who of us don’t know someone who suffered in the coldness of the absence of love in his or her life?  Or who hasn’t a burning light to arrive at faith.  We’re all on our own journey.  We must look out, see those around us, and realize they are on the same journey.  We look at them with empathy; we look at them with pity and we can really see each other as brothers and sisters.  We are suffering along the same way or on the same road, the same pilgrimage.  We are actually still growing.  St. Paul says, “We groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.”  Even St. Paul, with the life that he lived as a preacher, a preacher to the Gentiles, living a life of pain and suffering and yet he talks about himself still groaning.  Maybe it’s not a groan, maybe he blooms and the seeds of his life have been ground into flour and given to his church, to our Church.  So what story allows us to go deeper and deeper into the mystery of God’s love for us.
 
Someone said the Church of the 21st century will be a church of mysticism.  Because of the contemporary world we have to go deeper in to the heart of the Father, deeper into that love, deeper into that mystery, to grab a hold and hang on to what God is giving us, God is telling us and to hold on tight so we won’t be shaken free.  It’s so easy to be distracted.
 
For the second reading, Romans, they’re just full of this, of the trials that the early Christians went through.  Paul wasn’t afraid to talk about his own suffering.  However, Paul was a very peculiar guy.  He was an open book.  He was there for the world to see.  He didn’t hide anything.  He didn’t hide his scars.  He didn’t hide his blemishes.  We see him as a man suffering for Chirst, pouring himself completely out.
 
Now, let’s get back to our own journey.  When we see others, it is so easy to be critical.  We give ourselves a break.  We say, “Oh I won’t think about it too deeply”.  But we very, very easily criticize each other and be annoyed with each other.  We get angry.  One of the things I’ve found that heals that is if the object, the person, who angers us, annoys us, imagine them as a child in their mother’s arms, three weeks old.  A little baby in its mother’s arms and that mother loves that kid, is so happy with that kid.  Everybody is joyful with that kid.  How could it be otherwise with this child?  We have to go back, we have to realize that that child, the way the family loves that child, is the way our Father loves us, every one of us.  If we fail or don’t want to try to love each other, give each other a break, we’re acting against the will of the Father.  It’s a brokenness of heart.  Therefore, we have to trick ourselves into ways of thinking of each other, of giving each other a break.  We need to stop comparing ourselves with others and leaving each other alone on their own journey, in their own field.  This field, lilies of the field, more plants the beautiful flowers of the Lord.  We, through our everyday lives, we tend to forget the deeper things of life.  Therefore, we must begin to practice.  Practice with the people we love, we forgive them easily.  Then we can go deeper into someone who just annoys us and try to forgive them, learn to forgive them.  Then when someone who makes life uncomfortable for us, ask God, ask our Lord for the grace to love, or if we can’t love, to wish them well.  Then there are those people we can’t stand to be in the same state with or even country.  We have to give them a break.  We can’t give them a break but we ask the Lord for the grace to wish them well and maybe, not maybe, hopefully, one day we’ll meet in God’s kingdom as His true children, as His lilies in His field.