HOMILY for July 23, 2017: 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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16^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

St. Jane Frances de Chantel

July 23, 2017

Lessons from Weeds and Wheat Growing Together

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Sunflowers and Weeds

I have always enjoyed some gardening – at least when I have time to do it.

I remember once planting sunflowers.  I really like them and was looking forward to them forming the background to the other plants and flowers.

Well, as the sunflower seeds sprouted and emerged above the soil, there were also some weeds.  It was very difficult to tell the difference between the leaves of these weeds and the leaves of the sunflowers.

I realized this too late and pulled up some of the sunflower plants with the weeds.  And then I decided to stop weeding in that area.

I figured that soon the sunflowers would grow so tall and start to bloom that it would be easy to tell the difference between them and the weeds.  That is exactly what happened and I ended up with some beautiful sunflowers and was easily able to weed around them.

Wheat and Weeds

This experience is what Jesus is talking about in today’s parable.

The farmer tells his workers not to pull up the weeds that are in with the wheat.  This seems counter-intuitive, against what seems to make sense.

But the farmer’s direction is correct.  The type of weed here looks like wheat in its early stages and you might pull up both weeds and wheat.

And beyond that, the kind of weed being referred to had roots that intertwined with the roots of the wheat.  So, even if you could identify and pull out the weeds, you would probably injure the wheat in the process.

Well, as with any parable, Jesus is really teaching us something about life and how we are to follow him.  There are some excellent lessons here.

Not Saying: Don’t Guide

First, what is Jesus not saying here?

Jesus is not saying that we should not guide our children, grandchildren, and youth.  We do need to guide them in what is right and wrong, and in choosing good friends.

Also, Jesus is not saying that we should condone or be passive about certain evils – things like foul language, racist remarks, abortion, and so on.  We need to be good models for our world when it comes to such things.

Saying 1: Don’t Weed Out

What then is Jesus saying with this teaching about the wheat and the weeds?

First, he’s saying: “Don’t weed out one another.”  He wants us to resist the human tendency to separate, divide, exclude, and shun in all its forms.

Sometimes religions, and those of us who are religious, can get into this sort of behavior.  In recent years, even in our Church, some have wanted to identify those who are weeds and pull them out and exclude them from Communion for reasons well beyond sound Catholic tradition. 

This kind of action just does not seem consistent with today’s Gospel.  Jesus calls us here to be patient and even give, what we might call weeds, the chance to grow to become wheat.

Saying 2: Don’t Label

That moves right into the second thing Jesus is saying here.  Do not even label others as weeds.

Again, there is in us all a human tendency to do this.  The problem is that it is an either/or dualistic approach – we versus them, the good versus the bad.

The best of our Catholic tradition has warned against and even condemned dualism.  Jesus calls us to a more unitive approach.

This means that we see both others and ourselves as one because, in fact, there is a mix of wheat and weeds right within me and within you.  Jesus is patient with us in letting us grow, and wants us to be patient with others in letting them grow.

 Saying 3: Nourish the Wheat

And that moves right into the third point Jesus is making.  He wants us to concentrate more on the wheat.

Nourish the wheat, just like the sunflowers in my garden, and it will grow well and be easily distinguishable from the weeds.  There will be a good harvest and God in God’s own way will take care of any weeds.

In other words, act positively in promoting what is good. 

Conclusion

A Franciscan theologian, Father Richard Rohr, offers some wonderful advice on this topic and I will conclude with his advice.

He says: “If you want others to be more loving, choose to love first.  If you want a reconciled outer world, reconcile your own inner world.

“If you notice other peoples’ irritability, let go of your own.  If the world seems desperate, let go of your despair.

“If you want a just world, start being just in small ways yourself.  If you want to find God, then honor God within you, and you will always see God beyond you.

“For it is only God in you who knows where and how to look for God.”  In short, pay more attention to the wheat than to the weeds.

HOMILY for July 16, 2017: 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

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15^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A

St. Mark’s Church, Fallston

July 16, 2017

Unleashing the Power of Listening

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

The Message: Listening

This morning I want to reflect with you on listening.

I am doing this because listening is the main point in today’s Gospel.  In the parable, the seed stands for the Word of God and the different types of soil represent different ways that we may or may not listen.

I am also focusing on listening because our culture has a problem with this.  In recent years, I have become very sensitive to the fact that we often don’t really listen to one another.

Lots of times we interrupt others when they are speaking.  We can probably see this played out in our personal experience and I know for sure that we see it on TV and in the public life of our country.

But, I don’t want to dwell on the negative.  The more important thing is that listening can be a very positive force in our lives.

It can be enriching for us when we really listen to others.  And in turn, it can be respectful and affirming of those to whom we listen.

Response to Jesus: 3 Recommendations

So, in this Gospel parable, Jesus is asking us the question: “How well do we listen?  Do we just hear what they’re saying, but are not really listening to them?” 

I have three practical recommendations for responding positively to Jesus’ desire that we be good soil or good listeners.  And, if you following along, you’ll see that they are intimately connected: the first recommendation leads to the second, and the first and second lead to the third.

Recommendation #1: Believe

My first recommendation is: Believe. 

If it is the Scripture or Bible we’re listening to, we have to believe that this is the inspired Word of God.

We are called to believe that God speaks to us here in these passages.  There is a message here for us from God, or about ourselves in our particular situation, or about how we are to relate to God and to one another.

If it is another person we’re listening to, be it a family member, or friend, or neighbor, or fellow employee, or whomever, we again need to believe. 

Here we need to believe that the other person has value, that he or she is made in the image and likeness of God, just as we are.  And so, we begin by assuming that this person may have something worthwhile to say or is deserving of our attention.

Recommendation #2: Inquire

So, my first recommendation is Believe. My second recommendation for good listening is: Inquire.

Perhaps a passage of Scripture that is proclaimed here at Mass or that we read at home is confusing.

So we need to inquire.  We look at the footnotes or a commentary on the Bible or we ask the priest or deacon or someone in faith formation on the parish staff to clarify this for us.  

Or perhaps we are in a conversation and trying to be attentive to what the other person is saying, but we need understand better.

So again, we need to inquire.  We respectfully ask: “Would you please explain what you meant by that?” or “I don’t think I understand; could you please say more about that?”

Recommendation #3: Receive

So, Believe and Inquire. My third recommendation for effective listening is: Receive.

If it is the Word of God, Sacred Scripture we’re listening to, we need to receive it.

This means we need to take it in, reflect and pray over it, and see how it relates to our lives right now, for it is God’s intent that it do so.

It means – and this is crucial – that we are willing to allow the Word of God to enhance our vision of life or alter our opinion about something and to make a difference in the things that we say or do.

If it is what another person has said, we again need to receive it.

Here this means that we enter into the person’s life experience or thought process that lie behind what he or she has said.  It means that we at least appreciate or understand more about that person as a result of what was said.

Conclusion

So, we need to (1) Believe, (2) Inquire and (3) Receive if we are going to listen well to the Word of God and to one another.

Believe opens us up.

Inquire draws us in.

Receive transforms both myself as the listener and my relationship to the one who’s listened to!