GOD’S WORD FOR THE DAY (based on Catholic Liturgical Readings)
DATE: 23RD JULY 2017
SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
FIRST READING: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
PSALM: Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
SECOND READING: Romans 8:26-27
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:24-43
THEME: THE WISDOM OF GOD
Imagine that after investing your time, energy and other resources into cultivating a very beautiful lawn, you discover some few days later that weeds have invaded your project. What would you do? Well, I do not know about you but for my part, instinctively, I would set my hands to work and IMMEDIATELY uproot the unwanted weeds. I would not have the guts to watch my lawn lose its beauty.
In the parable of the “wheat and weeds”, Jesus, in speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven, gives us a completely different attitude of how the Lord deals with evil in the world. He does not set out to remove ‘weeds’ immediately by instinct, rather he WAITS for the right time. Three insightful points can be inferred from the Gospel:
1. God is patient: The Lord is never in a hurry. He knows when to act. His patience, with reference to evil in the world, is geared towards giving space and time to people to repent (cf. 2Peter 3:9).
2. God’s ways are not our ways: A person on a hill often gets a broader view of the plain than the one in the valley. Often we look at things from a limited perspective and would want to act instantly but God looks at reality from a broader perspective and acts appropriately. Yes God’s ways are not our ways (cf. Is. 55:8-9).
3. There is a day of reckoning: The fact that the Lord is patient does not mean there is no accountability with him. We would each have to render an account of our lives to him someday and this calls for reflection and wholesome living (cf. Is. 10:3).
Putting the above three points together, we get a feel of the Wisdom of God which the First Reading elucidates. In his wisdom, God is lenient to all and grant us the opportunity for repentance.
Think of it, many of us have not fully grasped how the “mind” of a computer created by human beings works. How then do we expect to grasp the “mind” of God who created human beings? To do this we need the Spirit of God. He is the one who knows the mind of God and he comes to us in our human weakness to aid us in our pursuit to live lives pleasing to God (see Second Reading).
As a new week begins, may the Spirit of God reveal to us the ways of God and cause in us true repentance that would show forth in holy living.
PRAYER: Eternal Father, your wisdom surpasses human understanding. You desire that all human kind be saved. Grant me the grace to make use of the moment of grace you have offered me and to turn away from my evils ways and follow your Son Jesus Christ wholeheartedly. Amen
Andrews Obeng, svd
DIVINE WORD MISSIONARIES
BIBLICAL PASTORAL MINISTRY
(Ghana Province)
“May the darkness of sin and the night of unbelief vanish before the light of the Word and the Spirit of grace. And may the heart of Jesus live in the hearts of all people” (St. Arnold Janssen).