Homily on “Wheat and Weeds in Our Lives” based on the Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 24-43):
Like many of you, one of my favorite hobbies is gardening. In fact, I even have a worm compost bin and I use the worm castings to fertilize the plants and trees.
I try my best to have a really nice garden. But, I also accept the reality that my garden will never look as beautiful as what you can see in Gardens magazines and the ads.
That is the reality of life as well. Jesus tells us also that we can expect weeds along with our good plants throughout our lives. He tells his disciples that in this world the good will exist along with the evil and it is going to be that way to the end of time. That's life and we have to expect to deal with that reality.
It is a fact of our society and a fact in our own personal lives. All of us experience good and bad in ourselves. We strive to be good, to do good and to live a life pleasing to God the best we can, but we all fail at times and we sin. We all have weeds in the garden of our life. So, what do we do about it?
Let us start with the bigger picture - Where our society is concerned, Jesus gives us the answer. We have to be the yeast of our society. It is our task as followers of Christ to be active in our society to eventually leaven the whole batch. I know its easy to say, "What can one person do?" But that is exactly it. Change has to start with one person, with one act, with one idea.
Let me tell you a true story – just recently
Overseas Filipina Worker in Dubai - Feby Dela Peña offers 200 free meals a day to Dubai’s hungry jobless migrants- hit hard by the Corona virus shutdown.
Febi, who is also unemployed herself, said: “We’re poor, to be honest, but it’s not a reason for me not to help. She relies on her husband’s modest income from a sales job.
She was able to buy about $130 worth of groceries, including 30 frozen chickens and sacks of rice, to startwith…and she began to cook.
Like most migrant workers in Dubai, the family lives in a shared flat. When her 11 housemates found out about her plan –– those who could - chipped in - as well. That is how Feby, age 34, launched the project she calls Ayuda – which means help.
She said: “Life is so hard and people don’t have anyone to depend on,”
“It’s a big thing if you can help even 10 people not to sleep hungry,”
And when word of her efforts spread on social media, people began dropping off cartons of eggs and bags of rice. In fact, an influential Emirati blogger gave her 10,000 dirhams = about $2,700 US dollars.
Meaning - Feby’s single act grew and grew. More and more people became involved in the work… like the mustard seed which starts very small and grows large.
It all happened because one woman had an idea and felt a need to help her fellow human beings who are in need.
People, even believers ask: With all the troubles in the world, it seems God is not doing anything? You see- God is doing something.
The question to you and me is this: What am I doing – what are you doing? We have so many problems facing us today that may seem so overwhelming. Where do we start? What problem is most important? What can we do?
We can all follow the example of Feby and start doing something, no matter how small… and we can start with our families.
There is this belief in our society that you can fix anything by throwing money at it. That's not the answer here. It takes personal involvement to be yeast. That is what it takes. We have to become personally involved in our world to make this world a better place. To be true followers of Jesus, we have to pick up our own cross.
Not everyone is not called to be a Mother Theresa or be like Feby.
We do not have to look far. Let us start with our own families, our own circle of friends.. There are so many people in need not only of material things, but also emotionally, psychologically, spiritually.
Here at St. Catherine’s, we have such indescribably amazing volunteers and ministers who help Fr. Glenn adapt to the ever new and changing challenges to continue to shepherd the faithful in these troubling times and to lead our faith community in worship.
Let us pray that God will make our hearts more and more attentive to the needs of others. As we heard in the Gospel, “Those who have hears, ought to hear.”
Pope Francis said: “Do not be afraid to devote your life to God and to others; it pays! For life is a gift we receive only when we give ourselves away, and our deepest joy comes from saying yes to love, without ifs and buts.”
Now - How about when it comes to our personal life? We all have good plants and weeds in our personal life. Most of us like to think of ourselves as essentially good people. And there is truth in that image of ourselves, but we all know there is another side to every one of us.
At times, for seemingly no reason, we are in a bad mood or ill temper, irritable, and at times we get angry so easily… at times we can become so selfish and downright mean… and so, we recognize the duplicity of our nature. Within the individual human heart there is a capacity for both good and evil. In every one of us, there is a strange mixture between the wheat and the weeds, so to speak.
Every person is a sinner; that - we cannot deny. But - every person is a potential saint; this we need to believe.
Jesus understood the dark side of human nature better than anyone else. He knew what it could do. It nailed him to the cross. But he kept believing that people were redeemable, and believed it - so deeply - that he bet his life on it.
As Father Robert Barron said: “God’s purpose is not to destroy the enemy but to change him…. Not to destroy the enemy culture but to convert it. Why does God not just eliminate his enemies? … just get rid of them - because God loves His enemies… and so the Church’s purpose, and so our purpose is not so much to destroy our enemies but to convert them…”
So, when we are tempted to lose faith in people including ourselves, all we need to do is look to Christ. Jesus keeps believing in the human race. He keeps believing in our world. But most of all, Jesus keeps us believing in ourselves.
Our job as followers of Christ is to try – to aim - for that perfect holy life, Our job is to recognize the fact that there will always be weeds of sin cropping up in our life. And so - we need to cultivate, nurture - to mulch – so to speak - with the Sacraments; we need to fertilize with prayer and we need to weed with the Sacrament of Penance.
Our personal life will never be perfect, just as our society will never be perfect… But - that does not mean that we stop trying to make it so. We all need to plant that mustard seed of Faith and nourish it so that it can grow and grow towards perfection.
As we go forth from this Eucharistic celebration today, let us all resolve to take on the task of doing something about a problem in our society – starting with our own families - no matter how small - and to do something in our own personal life to draw us all closer to Jesus.
Amen… which means - So be it.
July 19, 2020
