Homily 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sunday 23rd July 2023

Homily

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday 23rd July 2023

The Gospel for this Sunday is about the Sower who sowed good seed, but the evil one went in at night to sow weeds. When servants asked if they should pull up the weeds, they were told to leave them there until the harvest time so that the wheat could grow to maturity. Once the harvest is ready the weeds could be easily identified and gathered first to be thrown into the furnace.

Jesus then explains the parable to his disciples saying the Sower is the Son of Man and that the field represents the world. The good seed is the people of God’s kingdom, and the darnel are subjects of the evil one. It was the devil who sowed the darnel seeds. At the end of time, Jesus will send his angels to gather the evil one’s subjects, those who do evil and provoke offence and will cast them down to hell, in the eternal furnace. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in God’s kingdom.

This life is a challenge, we are not left alone in this world. God provides each of us with a guardian angel, who is there to help defend us against the snares of the evil one, the Devil. The Holy Spirit also guides us to move in the right direction. Our lives are not meaningless once we realise that we have been sent into this world for a purpose, the help spread the good news and to share the love of God with others.

There has been no time in history when the whole world has been shut away and cut off from others as we have seen in recent years. The lockdowns imposed because of COVID isolate us all. The experience has had a profound effect on so many people adding fear of going out and being with others. Yet humans are social creatures, we need the company of others.

We see it in family gatherings when grandparents can be with their children and their grandchildren. The Fourth Sunday in July has been dedicated to grandparents and the elderly, honouring Jesus’s grandparents Saints Joachim and Anne, Our Lady’s parents. The strong bonds are forged where families, one generation after another, can share their lives and support one another in both good times and hard.

When families get together and share their stories, the young learn about the tales of the old, often funny because these stories have an impact on the lives of the ones they love. It gives them a sense of who they are and who they would like to be. Families provide boundaries which also helps with the development of the younger ones, showing what is right and wrong.

Our loving Father provides those boundaries in the Ten Commandments, ten simple rules that allow us to lead a fruitful life. Jesus encouraged his followers to keep those commandments and provide two more simple rules, the first was to Love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind, and our soul; and the second was to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. By keeping these two commandments we also will be keeping God’s Ten Commandments, which are, as he says.

1) To know “I am” the Lord your God: you shall not have strange Gods before me.

2) You shall not take the name of the Lod your God in vain.

3) Remember to keep holy the Lord’s Day.

4) Honour your father and your mother.

5) You shall not kill.

6) You shall not commit adultery.

7) You shall not steal.

8) You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.

9) You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.

10) You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods.

Today many seem to have forgotten those simple rules. Today’s Gospel tells us that the evil one has sown his seeds to confuse us, and many have been led astray. St Paul says that if we chose to be unspiritual, we are being led towards death because the unspiritual is the fruit of the evil one’s seeds. Though being spiritual is a challenge in today’s materialist and scientific world that rely on objective measurements, if we accept Jesus as Our Lord and trust in him, we will live and God will be with us.

Many of us can be made weary of this life, but the Spirit will help us in our weaknesses and can make our plea to God when the words are hard for us to find to express our needs. We must be reassured that God knows everything in our hearts and gives us the free will to choose. All he asks is we trust in him.

In the book of Wisdom, we are told there is no god but Our Lord who cares for everything. No matter how much we may be told there are, these are false claims. Our God is the only Judge, and because of his sovereign power he can be and is lenient with us. If we are virtuous, we will keep Jesus’s commandment to love our neighbours. God knows we get things wrong and often go astray into sin, but he also grants us, through his love for us, to be able to repent and turn back to him.

Amen.

• Likes
• Download
• Share