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.
