HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II (1)

HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE 16TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME CYCLE II

THEME: Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’

BY: Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA

HOMILY FOR SATURDAY JULY 23 2022

*READINGS OF THE DAY*
Jeremiah 7:1-11
Psalm 83:3-6,8,11
Matthew 13:24-30

*LITURGICAL COLOUR*
Green

*FROM OUR FIRST READING*
In our first reading today, we heard from the Book of the prophet Jeremiah of the moment when Jeremiah embarked on his mission to preach the words of the Lord to the people of the kingdom of Judah, which he had been sent to. The people of Judah and their kings and leaders had long disobeyed the Lord and turned back into the path of sin, evil and wickedness, and for that, Jeremiah told them all that they would pay the consequences for their disobedience and sins, but yet at the same time, God still loved His people and wanted to show them His mercy, to forgive them and be reconciled with them.

*FROM OUR GOSPEL READING*
In our Gospel passage today, we heard the Lord Jesus speaking to His disciples and followers with the parable of the sower of seeds of wheat and the weeds that were sown by the enemy of the sower. Using that parable, the Lord showed how the wheat represents everything good that God had sown in us, with the sower representing God Himself. The enemy on the other hand represents the devil and all of his wicked forces bent on seeing our destruction. The weeds therefore represent the temptations of desire, greed, pride and the many sins that they had sown in us, and in trying to steer us away from the path towards salvation into the path towards damnation instead.

*CONCLUSION*
Dear friends in Christ, God recognizes that we are all a mixture of wheat and weed, of good and evil, of strength and weakness and he is patient with our mixture. We need to be patient too, with ourselves and with others. In striving after a perfect garden, a gardener risks doing harm as well as good. In striving too hard to make ourselves perfect or, more worryingly still, to make others perfect, we risk doing as much harm as good. We need to learn to live with the mixture we and others are, while celebrating and working to enhance all that is good there.
May we all have a Blessed weekend through the intercession of St Bridget. May she pray for us.

Fr. Diotacious Chikontwe SMA