The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 23, 2023

Matthew 13, 24–43

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”  He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the ‘birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.”  He spoke to them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”  All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.  Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.” 

“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.”  We should try to read the parables in today’s Gospel Reading as though we had not heard them before or heard any explanation of them.  This will give us some idea of what the people heard when the Lord related them.  They heard, in the first parable, a short account of a man who sowed (or, supervised the sowing by his slaves) of seed in his field, and that an enemy of his attempted to sabotage his hard work, bizarrely, by sowing weeds in the field at night.  Rather than send his slaves out to pick out the weeds, the man lets his crop and the weeds grow together.  At harvest it would be quite clear what was to be gathered into the barns and what to burn.  Now, the Lord has told his crowd of listeners that this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.  The crowd asks no questions.  But how much of his meaning could they have understood, especially if they expect the Messiah to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth after defeating the Romans?  How much would we understand in their place?  But no one asks any questions.

In fact, the Lord explains for us all the frustrating problem of why he allows the wicked to live among the just, and those striving to be just, and he does it in this simple, concise way rather than offering long lectures to accomplish the same goal.  He himself, he is saying, does not plant the weeds with the good seed.  Rather, the devil comes in to do this, intending to corrupt the good seed.  The Lord brings good out of the evil the devil does by allowing the wicked to test the good, thereby offering the good the opportunity to strengthen their virtue through its rigorous exercise.  The attitude of the man in the parable: “If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them” shows his wisdom, as if to say, The good seed “needs” the bad seed.  But of course, at the harvest — the end of the world when the angels gather together all who have ever lived — the wicked have no further use and can then be burned.

We should also try to see the Parable of the Mustard Seed as its original hearers heard it.  While it is possible some of the crowd grasped that the “good seed” and the “bad seed” in the first parable signified the just and the wicked, it is less likely the people would have understood the story of the Mustard Seed.  It features no unusual elements as the first parable did, and it describes a simple fact of nature that hardly needed telling.  But the Lord is teaching that the kingdom of heaven shall begin very, very small so that it is hardly noticeable.  But, amazingly, it will grow into “a very large bush” for the birds of the air — all seeking righteousness — to inhabit.  The birds fly about in the air but cannot live there.  They find refuge in the branches of the Mustard Tree — the Body of Christ, the Church — so that they may be “in” the sky, the place where God dwells with his angels.

The third parable also presents a commonplace event: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.”  What could the crowds have made of that?  What could we?  But no one except the Apostles asks questions him about what he means.  Here, the yeast is the grace of God which is invisible and yet enormously powerful.  God “works” it into his Church — or into any member of his Church, so that an abundance of faith and good works results.

Today we have many ways to learn about the Lord and his teachings.  Not only does his Church offer us catechisms but also the works of the Fathers of the Church and of those who teach the Faith today.  Let us avail ourselves of these while we yet have time so that our faith in and love of the Lord Jesus may grow.