17/07/2011 - 16th Sunday in Ordinary Season - Year A
1Reading Wis 12,13.16-19 Psalm 85 2Reading Rom 8,26-27 Gospel Mt 13,24-43
God's power is that of love: this is the teaching of the Book of Wisdom of
today's First Reading. God is powerful, but his power is seen only by the one
who rebels against him. All those who love him experience his tenderness, even
so, his indulgence. God's love is able to forgive. We enjoy of this particular
trait of our God, and learn from him to have mercy on all. The people of God
is there a people where repentence and forgiveness reign. The most beautiful
thing that God can do with me is to give me the capacity to repent of my sins
and to be able not to judge anyone, and to meet all, all, even the enemies,
with compassion and mercy.
Jesus uses his parables to helps us become like God, that is , merciful and
humble, loving all. Three are, today, the similarities on which we are to turn
our eyes. They continue with the teaching of which we heard last Sunday. Next
to the good seed grow useless and dangerous weeds that can put in crisis those
who work in view of the harvest. If the seed is small one is not to be discouraged,
because it contains a superior power to its dimensions. It is like the yeast
use by women to make bread: its little and hidden, but surprisingly it has the
capacity to change a huge ammount of flour.
Next to us, who try to carry within us Jesus for the good of all, live those
who try to stop us from doing it. The Reign of God for which we try hard to
work can be hindered by those who live next to us, by those who had welcomed
like us the same Word of life. It's a mess! What to do? Even in the Church there
are those who sow weeds and ruin the work of others who offer themeselves as
a sacrifice for the salvation of whole generations. Again, within my own heart,
with the will to obey God and build with him the reign of heaven, I find strange
desires to return back and be like the world around me. I cannot keep away no
one, why should I, therefore, keep away myself. I endure with patience the presence
of others who might carry an untrue or immature faith. I try with all my power
to be faithful to God, to love and listen to Jesus, to trust myself to be helped
and guided by his Spirit. Hence I shall be the joy of my Lord and shall be of
a help to someone to become or remain faithful to his call. The parable of the
weeds puts me on guard not to look at others neither to jugde them, nor to imitate
them, but to keep my eyes always towards the one who God has sent to be our
pastor. It is God who at the end will gather all and will separate those whom
he recognized as his and those whom he recognized as not his.
Are those who love Jesus few? It is trute, even so, they are very few. But
it is not necessary that they are many. Those few, if faithful and if they keep
to their identity, if they keep the Word in their heart and express it in their
life, are an enormous power in the hands of God. The poor keep growing, becoming
more and more, as it happened in Jerusalemm on Pentecoste. You cannot and you
are not to get discouraged: keep the Word, carry it within you, open up for
it so that it be alive in you, and you see the Church growing. It is said that
the blood of the martyrs is seed for new christians. The Word of God lived until
the end it not live in vain: it is to produce always its fruit, because, since
it is God's, it cannot let down anybody. The fruit of the Word is enjoyed not
only by God, and not only by those who make out of it an instrument, but also
by many others, like the mustard seed, once grown, it serves the birds of the
sky to build their nests. In a biblical language the birds of the sky are the
peoples of the earth, the pagan peoples: all the world is to benefit from the
faithfulness of the christians!
Jesus ties this concept with the other parable, that of the yeast. A reign of
God, which is so small and poor, can it bear a meaning? If it is of God one
is not to say it is small, because whatever comes from God bears in itself his
power, that goes over that of all men put together. Yeast, as little as it could
be, changes floor into bread. It takes only few christians, united together,
to make the reign of God visible in the world: This happenned very many times,
and it will happen again.
Ascoltiamo Gesù e continuiamo a tenere a portata di mano la sua misericordia
verso tutti, come lui la dimostra ogni giorno verso di noi: vedremo i suoi prodigi.
Lasciamo che in noi lo Spirito di Dio innalzi la sua preghiera al Padre per
tutti i credenti!