Sunday, July 23, 2023

SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, JULY 23, 2023

(Wisdom 12:13.16-19; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43)

The gospel today deals with a challenging issue for Christians. In it Jesus explains how God tolerates evil. His teaching will be in the form of a parable. This is not surprising since we find Jesus in the middle of his parabolic discourse.  Although they are not full explanations, parables facilitate understanding of hard topics.

In the part of the speech today Jesus gives three parables. Each one describes "the Kingdom of heaven." It can be said that this very phrase is a type of parable. Instead of saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed…”, he could have said: “God may be likened to a man …” Like the Jews in general, Jesus enjoys using poetic comparisons. For this reason also he describes “the Kingdom of heaven” as like “a mustard seed” and like “yeast”.

Let me make a brief digression to explain the "problem of evil" that Jesus will illuminate with his parable. In a famous novel a man speaks about his rejection of God. He says that he cannot accept a God who allows innocent children to suffer. He then describes a case that the novelist took from the newspaper of the time. A five-year-old girl was tortured by her parents. They beat her, kicked her, locked her in an outhouse on a winter night, and did even worse. Such abuses still occur frequently worldwide. We have to ask, “How can God allow such things?

In the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus assures us that God's intention is not to cause injury. The sower sows only "good seed." He also says that the forces of evil, an "enemy", are free to cause harm as with the weeds sown among the wheat. He then adds that the sower does not want to eradicate the tares because he knows that he will ruin some wheat in the process.

“Is this explanation alone valid as a justification for the suffering of children?” Maybe not! For this reason Jesus adds the other parables. In the beginning, God appears among men and women as a small thing. He is within the gentle breeze in the story of the prophet Elijah and like the mustard seed in the parable here. However, over time He seems to grow to provide relief to many in need. One can see this parable being realized in the many orphanages, schools, and hospitals established for the love of God. In the following parable Jesus says that God works mysteriously and silently among human beings.  His work is likened to a woman who mixes a handful of yeast into three measures of flour. The result is enough bread to feed a platoon of soldiers. In other words, although evil continues in the world, God is always countering it with more goodness.

Perhaps we are left with some concern. Some suffer tremendously while others only a little. "Why" -- we want to ask God -- "do you allow all these atrocities?" Let us turn to the second reading of the Letter to the Romans for the answer. St. Paul perceives God himself, the Holy Spirit, praying within us "with groans that cannot be expressed in words." This is to say that God provides us His own Spirit so that our hope does not falter.  The same Spirit will move us to join the struggle against evil.

These parables that illuminate the problem of evil do not say much compared to Jesus crucified. How can we question the goodness of God as we look at his Son hanging on the cross? Jesus did nothing to deserve this extremely torturous death. He endured it to free us from the punishment for our sins. Linked to the resurrection, the crucifixion of Jesus assures us of God's love. He frees us from sin and provides us with a destiny of glory.