HOMILY FOR THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A. (5)
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HOMILY FOR THE SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A
HOMILY THEME: THE REALITY OF EVIL
BY: Fr. Unachukwu Nnamdi CCE
HOMILY:
The reality of evil is palpable that it confronts us on daily basis. It is not just some kind of abstract reality but a concretely lived experience that continues, sometimes, to make us cast doubts on the goodness of this world created by God and affirmed to be so good by Him (Gen 1:31). But then, we must note that we have much more goodness in the world. It is so unfortunate that sometimes we see much of the evil in the world that we fail to see the much more manifestations of goodness that abound; far more than the evil that the enemy of the Kingdom would want more trumpeted. Remember, the empty can makes the loudest noise. May God save us always from the destructive forces of evil and help us abound more in good works; Amen.
Continuing with his set of teachings with the use of parables, Jesus in the Gospel (Mt 13:24-42) taught us about the Kingdom of Heaven. Firstly, one of the deepest mysteries about the Kingdom of God, “that the Kingdom of God is here already but not yet”; explaining the truth that in this life we have a foretaste of the Kingdom of God which will be fully manifest at the end of time, when the One True Judge of all will come to judge the living and the dead in justice and in love. The Second Reading (Wisdom 12:13, 16-19) drew our attention to this judgment of the King. And secondly, the unflinching effort of the enemy of the Kingdom to compromise the growth of this Kingdom. This age-long tension is made most manifest in the fight between the force of goodness and the force of evil; a tension which at every point is only settled in either of the two directions with only one assent of the will; the direction of our choices.
From the obstacles of the first parable we see that Jesus desires that we become more attentive to the tactics of the enemy to incite the fall of the Kingdom of God. These obstacles represented by the sowing of weeds represent the different ways that the enemy uses to seduce us into his camp. They are always present among us, in the form of hatred, in the form of seduction of all kinds, in the form of greed, in the form of pride, etc. These anomalies challenge the growth of the Kingdom of God in our lives. They are the sources of all the evils that can be found in the world; War, suicide, murder, rape, corruption in our societies, human trafficking, racism, distortion of human sexuality, oppression of the poor, etc. Last year, a person asked me, where can you find evil? I replied, where you omit to do a good deed! Whenever we fail to do a good deed we hurt the growth of the Kingdom of heaven.
From the growth and expansion spoken of in the second and third parables, Jesus desires that we become certain that the Kingdom of God always wins despite every obstacle that the enemy puts on the path of its growth. Evil cannot stifle the power and victory of goodness! The Master reminds us also that at the end of the world, those who assented to the power of goodness and who contributed to the victory of goodness will reign with the King of Heaven and earth in eternity.
May you find a place in the Reign of the King in His Kingdom in eternity; Amen.
Happy Sunday; Fr Cyril CCE
