Jun 30, 2024 | Homily
By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, C.S.Sp. (Wis.1:13-15,2:23-24, Ps.29:2.4-6.11-13, 2Cor.8:7,9,13-15, Mk.5:21-43)
Dear brothers and sisters,
Going through the Gospel narratives, one notices that Jesus’ salvific ministry centers mostly on his teaching, healing, and deliverance. Through his teaching, Jesus enlightens our minds with the truth which leads to authentic, happy, and eternal life. His healing ministry frees victims of sickness, deformity, and all sorts of physical, mental, and emotional impairments; and his acts of deliverance set free those possessed by the forces of darkness, whether in the form of demonic possession or as a result of wrong choices and deeds, like the man that was laid down from the roof to whom he said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven”(Luke 5: 17 -39). One prominent thing that stands out in all these actions of Jesus is the trustful and resilient faith on the part of those who received healing or those who brought them to Jesus.
Today’s Gospel reading taken from Mk.5:21-43 presents us with a very exciting account of two great miracles of Jesus on healing & raising of the dead. We see the elements of faith and resilience shining out in both stories. Imagine the message that Jairus got as he was waiting for Jesus to go with him and lay hands on his sick daughter: “Your daughter is dead, why put the master to any further trouble?” This is a rhetorical question meaning that the answer is contained in the question. Those who asked this question were not expecting any other answer. They were only making a statement that Jairus was wasting his time because his daughter was already dead and there is nothing Jesus could do about it. That statement was brought to a man who was struggling to save his daughter from the cold hands of death. He was fighting to make sure Jesus came before the worst happened. We can see it in the man’s actions. The passage reads, “he fell at Jesus’ feet and pleaded with Him earnestly saying, ‘my little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life’”. This man was a synagogue official, yet he knew that if nothing was done, he would lose his daughter. You can imagine how he felt when people came from home to tell him not to bother Jesus any longer because the worst he feared had happened, his daughter was dead.
You might have experienced situations where someone was so sick that doctors gave up. In some cases, the hospital would not even accept the patient, they would not even try because they have already considered the situation irredeemable. When Jesus overheard the bad news, he told the man not to be afraid, but ‘only have faith’. This reminds us of what Martha told Jesus when he came later to Bethany after his brother Lazarus was dead and buried. She said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” (John 11.21). Though Martha knew Jesus and what he could do, she had given up on his brother coming back to life. Her faith did not go so far as to be certain that Jesus could bring Lazarus back to life. So, she added “But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask” (John 11: 22). That is a polite way of saying, ‘I trust you to do something, but I am not sure you can’. It might be the reason Jesus had to remind her that He is the resurrection and the Life (see verses 25 – 26).
The first reading tells us that death was not God’s doing, extinction was not in His plan and there was no fatal poison in what God created. What the author of the Book of Wisdom wants us to know is that death, poison and extinction, and all forms of negativity that suck energy out of life are not in God’s design for us. This means that when we see these forces in action, we should stand up against them rather than cowardly submit to them. Jesus gave the parable of the man who sowed good seed in his farm and when he was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed weed (Matthew 13.24-29). Being aware that destruction, futility, and extinction are not of God helps us not to surrender to these seeds of the enemy. Jesus said to Jairus, do not be afraid, only have faith. This is because fear, worry, despair, doubts, and depression are all forces of negativity and are the seeds of death. They start by destroying our faith and trust in the goodness of God. We should never allow them to master us because they are neither of God’s design nor are they helpful to our wellbeing.
When Jesus went into the house of Jairus, rather than accepting that the girl was dead, he said that she was only sleeping. This statement of Jesus shows us how He looks at death and other forms of evil. Accepting a bad situation weakens your courage to overcome it. Just like he said about Lazarus, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am on My way to wake him up” (John 11.11-12). His disciples who did not understand why He would go to Bethany to wake a sleeping man told Him there was no need to waste energy to go and wake someone sleeping. So they said to Jesus, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better”. When they realized that Lazarus was already dead, they had nothing more to say about the situation.
In all these stories, we see the relationship between death, extinction, poison, fear, envy, doubt, and the devil on one side; we equally see the relationship between life, rising, faith, virtue, and Jesus on the other side. Jesus calls us to faith and not to fear. He calls us to rise up from whatever is keeping us down, whatever is breaking us apart, whatever is making people send messengers of bad news to tell us not to trouble the Master anymore; messengers of doom, darkness, and despair who would want us to give up. Against all these messengers of bad news, Jesus says to us, ‘Do not fear, only have faith’. Sometimes, the messengers of doom come from inside us, the inner voices that only whisper fear, discouragement, destruction, and despair. These are the voices that lead to depression, doubt, and denial of our power. It is good to face them with the words of Jesus; ‘do not fear, only have faith’.
These words of Jesus offer us power and authority for our daily struggles against the forces of evil and the fatal poisons of the devil and his agents. We are called to nourish our faith, courage, and character. We are called to destroy fear, negativity, and futility. It is now clear that anytime we are nurturing envy, we are nurturing the seed of the devil, it is equally clear that those who instill fear, confusion, panic, and anxiety into us are not working for God. We have no reason to listen to those who laugh and mock our ugly situations.
Jesus said to the little girl, ‘Talita, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up’ and she did. May we hear His voice calling us to rise from all forms of oppression, despair, depression, bondage, and brokenness. Any seed that is not planted by God are meant to be uprooted, that was why Jesus came into the world: to destroy the work of the devil (1 John 3.8).
May 26, 2024 | Homily
By Fr, Marcel Uzoigwe, CSSp. (Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40; Psalm 33; Romans 8:14-17;Matthew 28:16-20)
Today we celebrate one of the greatest mysteries of our Christian faith, the Holy Trinity. This celebration reminds us that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are equal persons of the one true God. They are never separated, though, each one of them is a distinct divine person. There is unity of essence and relation within the three divine persons.
The concept of the Holy Trinity is not easy to explain in human terms. We know the story of St. Augustine of Hippos who sought to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity so that he could explain it logically. Preoccupied with this as he walked along the seashore, he saw a little boy who made a hole in the sand and was fetching water from the sea and emptying it on the hole he had made. When he asked the little boy what he was doing, he replied that he was trying to empty the sea into the little hole he made. That was an impossible feat that showed St. Augustine how difficult it was to fully understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
You probably already know another story about a young boy who climbs a mountain in India to meet a guru. When he got to the top, he found the guru sleeping and woke him up. The guru asked him, “What can I do for you, young man?” He answered, “I want you to explain God to me.” The guru smiled and said, “A God that can be explained is not a God that you should worship.” And went back to sleep. This is so because once we can define God and fully understand him, then we have reduced him to something we can manage and control. It is not about the truth of these stories that matters, but the fact that, like the little boys, understanding the mystery of the Holy Trinity in its logical form is difficult and unnecessary. What is important is understanding what it holds in stock for us.
The doctrine of the inner relationship of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is a mystery in the sense that we grow every day in our understanding of it, but might never know everything about it. The readings would not get us there. The word Trinity is not found in the Bible. Early Christians arrived at the doctrine when they applied their God-given reason to the revelation which they had received in faith. Jesus spoke about the Father who sent him (the Son) and the Holy Spirit he was going to send. He said that the Father had given him (the Son) all that he has and that he in turn has given to the Holy Spirit all that he has received from the Father. In this, we see the unity of purpose among the three persons of the Trinity.
The importance of this doctrine lies in this: we are made in the image of God which we have seen to be a mystery. Experts in religion tell us that people always try to be like the god they worship. People who worship a warrior god tend to be warmongering, people who worship a god of pleasure tend to be pleasure-seeking, people who worship a god of wrath tend to be vengeful, and people who worship a god of love tend to be loving. Like a god, so the worshippers. Therefore, the more important question for us to ask today is: What does the doctrine of the Holy Trinity tell us about the kind of God we worship and what does this say about the kind of people we should be?
The human person is a mystery. We are made in God’s image and likeness. We bear something of God and something of human nature. We are not just human, but equally God in human expression. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him” (John 14:23). We grow every day in self-knowledge. It is funny that despite the many years we have lived, we still surprise ourselves sometimes. We still don’t fully understand ourselves. That is why we struggle to understand ourselves more and to become the better version of ourselves. If we still struggle with understanding ourselves, how difficult is it then to understand others? This is an invitation to be patient with people, just as God is often patient with us.
By creation we recognize the creative power of God. By redemption, we recognize his infinite love that made Jesus undertake the pains of the cross. And by sending the Holy Spirit, we see that God loves to be with us at all times. These show us that God himself does not exist in solitary individualism but in a community of love and sharing. God is not a loner. He is a community of three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These core characteristics should be seen reflected in us: creativity, love, compassion, assisting those in need, cooperation, and standing up for one another. This means that a Christian in search of Godliness must shun every tendency to individualism. The ideal Christian spirituality is that which encourages unity in diversity.
The mystery of the human person can be better understood in a loving relationship that mirrors the relationship that exists among the Trinitarian God. We are so diverse and gifted differently as individuals. Our gifts and talents become useful in the context of community when we put them at the service of others. God is God because he made humans through whom he reveals himself. Just as God is God only in a Trinitarian relationship, so we can be fully human only in a relationship of love in a community. The self needs to be in a horizontal relationship with others and a vertical relationship with God. In that way, our life becomes Trinitarian like that of God. The I-and-God-and-neighbor principle becomes our model of relationship.
Today, the church reminds us that the three divine persons are not divided in their essence and actions. Instead, they work together. Therefore, what we celebrate today is a model for our unity in diversity. One of the important lessons we can learn from the Holy Trinity is that in spite of our individual personalities and differences, unity is possible and a fundamental option. We need to reassess the place of unity in our communities, relationships, friendships, marriages, and families. It also reminds us that in spite of our different talents, gifts, social, and economic levels, we can live and work together for our salvation and the salvation of the world.
Like the apostles, we as Christians must carry this message: that God, that Jesus, that the Holy Spirit is love, and that He is present among us. He is present as Father in the love we give and receive, and also in those who give time and attention to the needs of their fellow human beings. He is present as Son in our faith; the faith we preserve and express in difficult times, suffering, and adversity. And He is present as Spirit in our faith that is stronger than all doubts, and in our enthusiasm that always renews and opens our faith to God’s endless love.
Sisters and brothers, may that be our experience of the Holy Trinity, the mystery that we will never be able to grasp with our human minds, but which instills in us that God is infinite love, close to us at every moment of our existence in the communion of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
Apr 28, 2024 | Homily
By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, C.S.Sp. ( Acts 9:26-31; Psalm – Ps 22; 1 Jn 3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8)
Dear friends in Christ,
One of the accusations that the Jews brought against Jesus during his trial was that he called God his father, and in that way sought to claim that he was one with God. They could not understand how Jesus, who they could see as a human being, could claim to be God. But Jesus did not stop there. He went on to say that we too are united with God, and are one with God. To make matters worse, he said, “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14: 23). Knowing how difficult it was for his audience to understand his deep spiritual teachings however, Jesus used various metaphors to illustrate his teachings, especially about the relationship that exist between him and his disciples. Last week it was “I am the good shepherd and you are the sheep of my flock.” In today’s Gospel, it is “I am the true vine and you are the branches.”
This Gospel reading is taken from the middle of the Last Supper discourse. There, Jesus spoke about his relationship with his disciples. Using the metaphor of the vine and the branches, which refers to the metaphor of God’s relationship with Israel that was constantly used in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jesus showed himself to be deeply united with those that belong to him. In the Old Testament, Israel was constantly referred to as the vineyard, and Yahweh himself was the master who planted the vineyard and tended it. God took the vine out of Egypt and planted it, watered, and pruned it (Psalm 80: 8-11). Therefore, he expected it to bear fruit. The prophets used this metaphor to remind the Israelites of the consequence of turning away from God whenever they did something wrong.
By using this metaphor, Jesus teaches his disciples that his relationship with them will not end after his death; he will remain with them always. This unity between Jesus and his disciples is the basis for their ability to continue to do the work that he began. Similarly, Jesus’ presence with us through the Gift of the Holy Spirit enables us to continue the work of love that he began. Just as the branches receive life from the stock, so do all who unite themselves with Jesus. He becomes their vital force, inspiring, leading and guaranteeing the life of grace in them.
Jesus also teaches his disciples about the importance of the words he has spoken to them. Keeping his word is the guarantee for remaining in him. It is also the assurance of winning God’s favor and receiving from God what we need or ask. For ourselves who did not see Jesus in the flesh, we come to know him through the Scriptures, the living Word of God. Our commitment to be Christ’s disciples is sustained through God’s Word. This commitment is also strengthened by our life of prayer and nourished by the Eucharist. Through the Eucharist, Jesus dwells in us, remains with us, and transforms us so that we might bear fruit in his name.
The image of pruning is a powerful one. Any gardener knows that growth should not be unchecked and unmanaged. There comes a time when pruning is necessary. It can appear to be a destructive act, and at times a gardener is emotionally reluctant to do it to a beloved plant, but it is absolutely necessary to allow fresh growth and ensure the plant’s long-term vitality. It is just like the plants and flowers we have in our gardens. There comes a time when we must trim them. Otherwise, they will not look beautiful. If you don’t prune the grapes, they won’t bear much fruit. But you also need to know what to prune, and how and when to do it. This image refers to our own lives. We must allow our own lives to be pruned so that we might continue to bear the right fruit.
Notice that the gospel tells us that God is the one who does the pruning, not ourselves. This should be an encouragement because if we were to do it ourselves, we might do it wrongly. What is required of us is to turn to God to help us set the priorities right. We can have a lot going on in our lives and at some point, it becomes too much and we start cutting. Unfortunately, we don’t always trim for the right reasons. We might keep what is fun rather than what is good for us. We might hold on to what makes us popular or what is easiest. The other option might be to get rid of everything, which could be an extreme reaction. But when we turn to God to do the trimming, he brings us to his light to see clearly what needs to be removed and what to keep.
We see in the first reading how Jesus pruned Saul who was destructive to the spreading of the Gospel and made him an apostle. The previous section of the Acts of the Apostles describes Saul’s persecution of the first Christians. He was devout in his Jewish faith and therefore was deeply offended that some of his fellow Jews were accepting Jesus as the Messiah. So Saul imprisoned many of them. He was present when Stephen was martyred, and consented to this violence (Acts 7:58 – 8:1). Saul believed that he was rendering service to God by killing those polluting what he considered to be the pure religion. While traveling to Damascus for this purpose, he was confronted with a vision of Jesus and was converted. His name was changed from Saul to Paul, and he was able to bear fruit for the Gospel to such an extent that a larger portion of the letters in the Bible are attributed to him. Without such pruning, his life would have been wasted pursuing what he considered just, yet unacceptable to God.
When Paul tried to join the other disciples, they were all afraid of him, having heard all he did to destroy them. In today’s reading, we see Barnabas reassuring the Christians in Jerusalem that Paul’s conversion was authentic. He narrated Paul’s encounter with the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus, and how afterward Paul had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus in Damascus. After the Jerusalem Christian community accepted him, Paul continued to speak out boldly for Christ. When Paul’s life was threatened because of his boldness in the public debate over Jesus Christ as the Messiah against the Hellenists, it was the same Christians he persecuted who had become part of his new family that saved him by bringing him to Caesarea – an important port city northwest of Jerusalem – from where he traveled to Tarsus.
Beloved friends in Christ, Jesus has called each of us to bear fruit. And we can only do that by being part of him who is the true vine. It is dangerous to choose any other way like Paul tried to do before his conversion. As the Scripture wans, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it leads to destruction” (Proverbs 14:12). If we are cut off from him, we can’t do anything. Let us, therefore, continue to grow in our union with Jesus and thus continue to bear fruit in his name. Amen.
Apr 9, 2024 | Homily
By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, C.S.Sp. (Is 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 15:1-39)
Dear friends in Christ,
The universal church celebrates Palm Sunday today to mark the glorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. That begins the last journey that would lead to his death on the cross and eventual resurrection when we celebrate Easter. Palm Sunday leads us to the very peak of the Christian faith. The readings of today, especially the Passion narrative, dwell on the betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus on the cross in a very touching and painful manner. Why would Jesus who went about doing good, healing the sick, and raising the dead (cf. Acts. 10: 38) suffer so much?
Suffering is something we all have experienced in some proportion. It is not fun, and no one likes it. Yet, it is a human reality. Every era and every culture has its understanding of suffering and seeks to find solutions or ways to deal with suffering to alleviate it. There is already enough suffering in the world. We suffer on many fronts, from natural disasters and diseases to human-induced suffering. What people do to cause suffering to each other is indescribable. Abuse of power, unbridled selfishness, feelings of insecurity and fear of losing one’s position, being trapped in an ideology, lack of respect for the life of others, carelessness and laziness, and slavish compliance with the norms of a culture, are some of the factors that cause suffering to people.
Suffering is not something to wish for, especially when it leads to nothing positive and greater in proportion to it. We frown at what some people might call meaningless suffering. By that, I mean suffering that leads to no good and that can be avoided. It could also be inflicted suffering from betrayal, lies, mockery, bullying, and all that springs from hatred and the desire to destroy the other for no just cause. The list of what might be regarded as meaningless suffering in human terms keeps expanding each day. When people who are positive about euthanasia speak, they seek to convince their audience of what they consider meaningless suffering and the only solution they can think of as ending one’s life. But can there be a meaningless suffering or do we conceive it to be so due to our perspective in life – the way we look at things or understand them? If we should have a clear picture of what comes much later after the suffering or take a cue about suffering from a divine perspective, will that change our view about the sufferings we might encounter in life, and how we respond to them?
The passion narrative we have just read declares Jesus’ attitude towards suffering. Jesus shows a way through suffering, not a way that makes us suffer less or some kind of grace pill as a pain reliever. He drank the chalice of suffering to the bitter bottom. He was betrayed by his close associate (Judas), abandoned by his disciples who preferred to save their own lives by running away and leaving Jesus alone to suffer, forsaken by his own Father (my God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? – Mark 15:43), mocked by the crowd he fed (John 6: 1-14) and healed of their sickness, accused by Chief Priests he came to instruct on true righteousness and condemned by Pilate to please the Jewish leaders. In all these, Jesus bore his suffering without taking revenge. He responded to evil with goodness, lies with truth, and enmity with love. In that way, he brought to practice his teaching on the Mountain (cf. Matthew 5: 43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy’. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”). Love was central and the determinant of all his actions.
The passion narrative would make no meaning if it was all about Jesus alone. Its beauty lies in the fact that it is about us. Jesus needed not to suffer for his own sake because, being God, he needed no salvation. But as Isaiah earlier prophesied, “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted”(Isaiah 53:4). This attitude is the attitude of sacrifice, of willingness to sacrifice, of overcoming oneself and going all out to do it for the sake of the other. It is an attitude we can only develop by first recognizing and dealing with our selfishness, fears and insecurity, attachments, and self-interest on many fronts. Jesus has shown us that path most radically and completely.
Christianity is not a faith and an attitude to life that makes life easier for us in the human sense of the word. It is not a kind of opium that numbs us in the face of suffering nor is it an antidote to the reality of suffering. If that is the case, the sufferings that Jesus underwent wouldn’t have been real. His pains would have been faked and the whole idea of salvation through his painful death and resurrection would be contestable. It is rather the other way around. Through our faith we receive the strength, the insight, the courage, the perseverance, and the inner joy that comes from knowing God is with us in all things, good and bad, joy and suffering, pain and healing. Faith enables us to experience the transformative power of God who, through the sufferings of Jesus, has brought about the salvation of the world. Thus, even in the face of inevitable pain or suffering, we know that we are not alone and that God who allows it has a greater goal in view for us.
Isaiah tells us in the first reading that the Lord God has given him a well-trained tongue, that he might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. He gave his back to those who beat him, his cheeks to those who plucked his beard and did not shield his face from buffets and spitting. This would not be ordinarily recommended to anyone in the human way of thinking. We humans think in terms of self-defense and retaliation. Referring to Jesus, this prophecy clearly defined the path that Jesus took and would recommend to his would-be followers. He has alleviated people’s suffering in every possible way, through healing, and liberation; the blind could see again, the lame could walk and the deaf could hear, and the dead were raised to life. Yet he allowed himself to undergo suffering. It is now easier to understand why his mockers taunted him saying, ‘he saved others; he cannot save himself’ (Mark 15:31). Being extremely selfish, the Jewish leaders could clearly not understand that Jesus concentrated on saving the world rather than on himself. And this is what he calls us to do. By loving one another and getting interested in the welfare of others, we offer God true worship and are in turn loved and cared for by God himself.
Yet another verse in the prophecy of Isaiah leads us into the second reading. There it reads, ‘Morning after morning he opens my ear that I may hear; and I have not rebelled, have not turned back’ (Isaiah 50:4). Rebellion is an offense to God. The entire biblical history of God’s anger against his people is linked with the concept of rebellion as sin, and that is often coupled with pride as the prime cause. Paul described Jesus in the second reading as the epitome of humility whose exaltation is based on his humble acceptance of the role of the suffering servant. He took that role and played it perfectly out of love for us so that we who are controlled by pride and selfishness would learn the true meaning of love and thereby become salvific in our dealings with our fellow men and women.
The passion of Jesus was for a purpose. He worked hard in that part of an imperfect world and underwent suffering himself to break its bondage on humanity. Through faith in Jesus, men and women can now be liberated from the clutches of evil in the human heart, the suffering that arises from lack of love, lack of faith, lack of trust, fear, and lies, from lust for power and deceit, excessive greed and selfishness. Humanity can enjoy the freedom brought by Jesus, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
We too are invited to be partners in continuing the work of Jesus through faith in him expressed in the living out of the Christian principles of love. Let this Holy Week be a period of sober reflection to truly realize what Jesus does for us and discover how we can be part of his saving mission to the world around us. Amen.
Jul 23, 2023 | Homily
By Fr. Marcel Uzoigwe, C.S.Sp. Wis.12:13,16-19, Rom.8:26-27, Matt.13:24-43.
Dear Friends in Christ,
Our society has changed a lot. Most children today know nothing about agriculture. One child was asked where eggs and vegetables come from. He replied that they come from the supermarket. You can’t blame the child. Every farm product comes from the supermarket. At least, that’s where you buy them, and that’s all some children born in the city know about farm products.
Growing up with my parents in the village, we had a farm where we planted different kinds of seeds. There I experienced today’s parable that Jesus used to convey a message about the kingdom of God. After tilling a field, we sow the seeds. Within a few days or weeks, the seeds germinate. As the seeds grow, we notice another seed growing around or near the good seed. Sometimes the planted seeds and the weeds looked alike: they shared the same soil nutrients, enjoyed the same weather, and received the same amount of water and sun. Before harvest, we weed the farm. If we weed too early, some desirable crops may be unknowingly uprooted. No matter how careful we are, good seeds will always be tampered with in the field.
Jesus told a parable about a man who had planted good seeds in his field. But at night the enemy came and planted weeds among the grain. The weeds germinated along with the wheat. The servants of the owner of the field where the good seed had been planted asked to remove the weeds from the wheat. The request was refused because by doing so they might also remove the good seed.
The enemy is identified in the parable as the devil. His intent is made clear. It is to destroy the good done and plant evil. Just as Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (John 10:10). It is difficult in life to identify the adversary because some actions seem good at first, but are later discovered to be evil in intent. It is also difficult to know people’s intentions behind their actions. As Shakespeare wrote, “There is no act to find the mind’s construction in the face.” So we can facilitate the enemy’s plan without knowing it. The master in the parable was wise enough not to allow his servants to clear the weeds when the right time has not yet come. It takes time and patience to discover and understand what is not immediately obvious to the senses. Moreover, separating herbs and weeds takes time and patience. Just as the good seed and the weeds are similar, so too, in many cases, good and evil are not immediately recognizable on the surface.
St. Augustine used the image of the two cities to indicate the struggle between evil and good. He called the first Babylon, the second Jerusalem. And he used the story of Cain and Abel from the book of Genesis (Genesis 4:1-16) to illustrate it. He took Babylon to mean confusion, and Jerusalem to represent the vision of peace. He indicated that by looking closely at the city of confusion, one understands better the vision of peace. That implies that the presence of evil can serve to recognize its opposite which is the good that man must strive for, just as darkness enables us to appreciate the light.
The parable of the Sower is also a signpost for our lives. The wheat and the weeds are both present in our hearts. There is always an inward struggle between good and bad within the hearts of men. We see the effect only when people give in to them. When someone gives in to anger, for instance, and acts accordingly, only then do we know what has been going on in him. Likewise, we know that someone loves us, not just when the person says it but when we experience it in action. That calls us to deep reflection. Do I recognize the weeds within myself? Do I know how to deal with it to avoid scattering it in others? Do I have the patience to know when and how to uproot them without endangering the good in me?
That invites us to learn how to discern. Discernment is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.12:10). It is the ability to judge situations properly, and have a good understanding of the moral and practical consequences of our decisions. If we possess the gift of discernment, costly mistakes, and misfortune will always be avoided. With discernment, we recognize whether or not something is truly from God, in accordance with God’s will, or in consonance with the devil’s agenda.
We have the example of Gamaliel in the Acts of the Apostles. He discerned properly during the persecution of the apostles before the Sanhedrin by advising them to leave the apostles and let them alone; because if what they were doing was of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God the Jewish leaders will not be able to stop them, rather they might even find out that they were fighting against God” (Acts 5:34-39). Without discernment, we cannot distinguish the wolves in sheep’s clothing, or the true prophet from the false prophet (Matt.7:15).
The good news is that we can pray and ask for the gift of discernment and be assured that God will grant it to us. Paul assures us in the second reading that the Holy Spirit can help us to pray properly in accordance with the mind of God. That is of great encouragement. Besides, the other two parables in the Gospel reading speak of the potential for growth in a positive direction. The first is the parables of the mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. This smallest of all seeds grew to become a big tree that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches. The second is the parable of the yeast a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through. These give the confidence that divine power working through us can accomplish infinite greatness (cf. Ephesians 3: 20).
The gift of discernment will enable us to learn from Jesus. There is always a struggle between the forces of good and evil. There is a need to be patient and not be quickly judgmental. Rather we need to tolerate and pray for one another. A sinner today may be a saint tomorrow. A prodigal son today may come to his senses tomorrow and return home a changed person. The first reading described God as strong and just in his judgment, yet lenient to all. By doing so, he has taught a lesson to his people that the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men, and has given us the good hope that after sin he will grant repentance.
Learning to discern is to follow Jesus’ example. May God grant us the gift of discernment to separate what is fundamental and good from what is transient and evil so that we may seek first the kingdom of God in all things.
