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Saturday – Sixteenth Week – OT2
Readings: Jer. 7:1-11; Mt 13:24-30.
1/ First Reading (Jer. 7:1-11): 1 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 Stand at the gate of the house of the Lord and proclaim this message there: Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord! 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds so that I may dwell with you in this place. 4 Do not put your trust in these deceptive words: “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!” 5 Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with your neighbor; 6 if you no longer oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow after other gods to your own harm, 7 only then will I let you continue to dwell in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors long ago and forever.
8 But look at you! You put your trust in deceptive words to your own loss! 9 Do you think you can steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal, follow other gods that you do not know, 10 and then come and stand in my presence in this house, which bears my name, and say: “We are safe! We can commit all these abominations again”? 11 Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I have seen it for myself! – oracle of the Lord.
2/ Gospel (Mt 13:24-30): 24 He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 26 When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. 27 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?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. 30 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.”’
I. THEME: God is very patient with people.
Life is compared as a battlefield between the good and the bad; even in a person, there are also good and evil habits. This concept was found in the scrolls discovered in the caves at the Dead Sea. In the Community Rule, one found these words: God let the children of light to fight with the children of darkness during this life until the Last Day. After that Day, the children of light shall remain forever while the children of darkness shall be destroyed forever. Therefore, how long does God let people to live on earth, they must try to practice virtues and to exterminate all their bad habits.
Today readings emphasize dangers of sins and God’s patience to wait for people to change. In the first rearing, prophet Jeremiah was sent by God to disclose the Israelites’ false beliefs. They thought that they only need to come to Jerusalem Temple to pray and to offer good offerings to God, everything shall be fine, and God shall bless them. They don’t need to reform their life nor to change their unjust treating of others. In the Gospel, Jesus told the parable of weeds to point out God’s patience in converting people: God’s enemies sow weeds in people; but they must recognize and exterminate them, don’t let them suffocate truths and destroy good qualities in them.
II. ANALYSIS:
1/ First Reading: The conditions to remain in God’s Promise Land and to receive God’s protection.
1.1/ According to human misunderstanding: Many Israelites were misled to believe that God never destroy the Jerusalem Temple because it is God’s house, where He is living. In today passage, the word, “the Temple of God” is repeated three times as to remind the Israelites that the Temple is not enough to guarantee that God is with them. If they don’t reform their life, God shall let their enemies destroying the Jerusalem Temple and put people on exiles. The history shows us that the Jerusalem Temple are destroyed twice: The first which was built by king Solomon was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king on 587 B.C.; and the second one, built by Nehemiah and Ezra, was pulverized by Roman armies on 70 A.C.
The prophet Jeremiah pointed out the Israelites’ falsity when they used the Temple to hide their immoral life. Many Israelites thought that they could commit theft, murder, adultery, falsely swearing, sacrificing to Baal and following other gods; and then go to the Jerusalem Temple to pray and to offer good sacrifice to God, He shall forgive their sins and their life shall be safe! If God let them to act like that and continues to protect them, He let them to change the Temple to be the burglaries’ safe dwelling.
1.2/ According to God’s truth: If they would like God to remain in the Temple and to protect them, they must truly reform their life and act according to God’s teaching. The prophet Jeremiah listed out two main things that the Israelites must do:
(1) They can not follow foreign gods and forget about God.
(2) They must justly treat others: Not to maltreat foreigners, widows, orphans. Not to pour out blood of the innocents.
If the Israelites do these, God is faithful; He shall do all what He promises to their ancestors: He shall give them descendants and they shall remain in the Promise Land forever. God sent not only Jeremiah He also sent Micah and Isaiah to Judah’s house before Jeremiah. These prophets warned the people of Judah many times, but people refused to listen and to reform their life; moreover, they persecuted these prophets. This is the reason why their nation and the Temple are destroyed, and the Israelites were on Babylon exile for 50 years. God is patient; but He must punish them after sending His prophets and waiting them to change. He never punishes anyone after the first warning.
2/ Gospel: “If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.”
2.1/ The parable of weeds: Through this parable, Jesus wants to teach His disciples that God always sows good things on people; but His enemies always sow evil things on people, especially when people do not pay attention such as when they are tired, sleepy, and least expected. Many people like His disciples don’t have patience and they want God to immediately pull out the weeds; but God told them to wait until the harvest time. The reason is that if they pull out the weeds now, they shall pull out also the wheat.
The difficult task for commentators is Jesus’ explanation. Jesus explained that the field is the world, the wheat is the children of light, and the weeds is the children of darkness. This is true and clear in the Last Judgment Day; but can not explain why one must wait until the harvest time when one knows weeds will be weeds; they can never become wheat.
The better explanation might be this way: A parable never can be applied for all cases; it can be applied for one main thing. That main thing in this parable is the waiting time for wheat to be separated from weeds; it is not about the danger of weeds to be pull out right away. In life, people must always face good and bad things during their time on earth. These good and bad things can’t be used to determine who are good or bad until the Last Judgment Day. On that Day, God shall separate the good from the bad, the sheep from the goat (cf. Matthew, chapter 25). While we wait for that day to come, we should try to do good and to avoid evil things. No one can be proudly to determine that he is good because he doesn’t know when the bad things are happened. If someone committed evil things, do not be discouraged but he should repent and hope for God’s mercy. We should not condemn anyone is the weed when we witnessed his evil act.
2.2/ God is patient for sinners to change: To have good results, people need time. In order for a seed to be wheat, it needs three months; for a person to be a professional, twenty-five years or more; for one to be a truly good person, he needs a hundred year or the whole life. The waiting time demands people must be patient. One of people’s enemies is lack of patience, though they might understand these maxims “Hast make waste. If one is patient to polish an iron stick, it could become a needle.” Many people have no patience to wait. When they are doing something, they want to have a result right away. Their lack of patience is the reason why they fail and suffer.
However, patience has its limit. All things have their own time. If it exceeds its time, it must be destroyed to provide opportunity for other. As in the parable of the fig tree or the parable of the branch without fruits, they shall be cut off and thrown in the fire.
God’s justice shall be clear on the Last Judgment Day. When that day comes, the weeds shall be cut off and thrown in the fire, the wheat shall be gathered in the warehouse. When these things happen, no one can blame God that He is not just nor merciful because He gives all many opportunities to reform their life.
III. APPLICATION IN LIFE:
– God is patient. He never punishes people after their first sin; but give them many opportunities to reform their life before He punishes them.
– What shall happen to us if God let His angels to pull off wheat after our bad thought or evil deed? Many people repent when they felt God’s compassion for their sins. As prophet Ezekiel said this about God: God is not please to see a sinner’s death; but wants him to repent and to live.
– We need to be patient with ourselves and toward others in the progress to become good persons. Never condemn anyone before the due time. God gives us hope that if there is time, there also exists an opportunity to repent and to be saved.