🎧 [Listen to Homily: Audio]
📺 [Watch Mass: YouTube Video]
16th Sunday
in Ordinary Time (Year A)
1.
A Compassionate Principal
Being
prepared is part of the message of today's Gospel.
When I was
in second grade, I noticed that one of my classmates had not been promoted to
the next grade. Curious, I embarrassed my mother by walking up to the school
principal in the parking lot and asking, in front of everyone, why my classmate
had been left behind.
I don't even
remember asking the question. But my mother remembered the principal's answer
for the rest of her life.
He explained
that the boy was not being punished. He simply needed more time to learn. They
wanted to help him grow. He was going to be all right, and all of us would
continue growing together.
That
conversation has stayed with me because it reminds me of the way God deals with
us.
God's
patience is not weakness.
God's
patience is mercy.
2.
God's Patience Is Mercy
In today's
Gospel, Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds.
The servants
ask the master, "Do you want us to pull up the weeds?"
He answers,
"No. If you pull up the weeds now, you may uproot the wheat as well. Let
them grow together until the harvest."
Jesus is not
telling us to ignore the difference between good and evil. We must recognize
what is right and what is wrong. But we leave the final judgment of persons to
God.
The Gospel
also reminds us that good and evil are not only around us—they are struggles
that exist within each of us.
Yet God does
not give up on us.
He gives us
another today.
Another day
to pray.
Another day
to forgive.
Another day
to repent.
Another day
to begin again.
That is why
the Sacrament of Reconciliation is such a gift. Confession is one of God's
greatest ways of helping us begin again. We receive His forgiveness so that we,
in turn, may become more ready to forgive those who have sinned against us.
Every
sunrise is another sign of God's patient mercy.
3.
The Harvest Will Come
For the
people listening to Jesus, the harvest was the most important time of the year.
That raises
an important question.
What is the
most important day of your life?
You might
answer: the day you were baptized, the day you were married, the day you began
a new career, or the day your children were born.
Those are
wonderful blessings.
But the most
important day of your life has not happened yet.
It is the
day you will meet Jesus Christ.
That truth
is not meant to frighten us. Rather, it reminds us that every day matters
because every day prepares us for that meeting.
God
patiently gives us time because He desires to gather us into His Kingdom.
4.
Sunday: God's Holy Interruption
How do we
prepare for that day?
Not by our
own strength alone, but by God's grace.
One of the
great gifts of Sunday is that God lovingly interrupts our routine.
Sometimes we
need a disruption in order to focus again on what is truly right and good.
For one hour
each week, we step away from work, entertainment, news, social media, and
countless distractions that compete for our attention.
Notice what
we are doing right now.
We are
praying together.
We have
willingly set aside food and drink for this hour, along with many other
distractions, so that our attention can belong more fully to God.
Many of us
will also place our gifts in today's collection.
Prayer,
self-denial, and generosity all come together in the Eucharist.
This weekly
"holy interruption" is not meant to burden us. It is one of God's
greatest gifts. Week after week, God patiently forms us into the people He
created us to become.
And that
prepares us to live what has often been called the beautiful life.
5.
The Beautiful Game
Many people
this afternoon will be watching the championship match of the FIFA Club World
Cup. Soccer is often called "the
beautiful game."
The game is
not beautiful simply because talented athletes are running around the field. It
is beautiful because they have learned to play together. They have disciplined
themselves. They know when to pass, when to defend, when to sacrifice for a
teammate. They use their minds, their bodies, and their gifts in harmony toward
a common goal.
The
Christian life is also meant to become beautiful.
Jesus
teaches us how to use our minds, our hearts, our words, and our actions for
what is good. He gives us His grace so that little by little we learn to live
as His disciples. Holiness is not something that happens all at once. It is
something God patiently forms within us over time.
6.
Ordinary Faithfulness Prepares Extraordinary Love
St. John
Henry Newman once wrote that holiness grows through ordinary faithfulness:
beginning each day with God, praying faithfully, examining our conscience,
doing well the ordinary duties of life, and asking God's grace to persevere.
Then he concludes with these surprising words: "And you are already perfect."
He does not
mean that we are without sin. He means that when we are sincerely walking with
Christ, God is already at work completing the good He has begun in us.
That
ordinary faithfulness takes many simple forms.
It is
preparing a meal for someone who needs one.
It is taking
a neighbor or a family member to a doctor's appointment.
It is
checking on a friend who is lonely.
It is making
a phone call, offering encouragement, forgiving someone who has hurt us, or
quietly doing our daily responsibilities with love.
These
moments may seem small, but they are never wasted. Every ordinary act of
charity is another way God prepares us for the greatest day of our lives.
7.
Daniel Anderl: A Life Prepared
A few years
ago, our own state of New Jersey witnessed a tragic but inspiring example of
this.
Federal
Judge Esther Salas answered the door of her home when a man disguised as a
delivery driver came intending to harm - to take her life. Her twenty-year-old son, Daniel
Anderl, stepped between the attacker and his parents. He gave his own life
protecting both his mother and his father.
It was an
extraordinary act of courage.
Today his
cause for canonization is being opened by the Diocese of Metuchen—not simply
because of one heroic moment, but because that moment grew out of an ordinary
life of faith. He had been formed by his family, his parish, his Catholic
education, and his relationship with Christ. Long before that final day, God
had been preparing him.
What also
moved many people afterward was the response of his parents. Instead of
allowing hatred to consume them, they publicly spoke about forgiveness. They
entrusted justice to God while refusing to let bitterness have the final word.
Heroic love
and heroic forgiveness do not appear suddenly. They grow from years of ordinary
faithfulness and from hearts that have learned to trust God's grace.
8.
Become the Wheat God Has Planted
That brings
us back to today's Gospel.
Jesus does
not ask us to spend our lives worrying about the weeds.
He asks us
to become the wheat.
Every time
we pray...
Every time
we come to Mass...
Every time
we forgive...
Every time
we repent...
Every time
we perform an ordinary act of charity...
God is
patiently preparing us for the harvest.
So today let
us ask the Lord for that grace.
May He help
us become the wheat He has planted.
May He help
us forgive those who have trespassed against us.
May He give
us the humility to repent of our own sins and the courage to begin again.
And may He
continue forming each one of us—along with those we love—into faithful
disciples, so that when the day comes for us to meet Jesus Christ face to face,
He may gather us with joy into His eternal Kingdom.
And I ask
you, please pray for me, as I am also called to pray for you.
