Reading 1 Jer 7:1-11
Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD,
and there proclaim this message:
Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah
who enter these gates to worship the LORD!
Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:
Reform your ways and your deeds,
so that I may remain with you in this place.
Put not your trust in the deceitful words:
“This is the temple of the LORD!
The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!”
Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds;
if each of you deals justly with his neighbor;
if you no longer oppress the resident alien,
the orphan, and the widow;
if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place,
or follow strange gods to your own harm,
will I remain with you in this place,
in the land I gave your fathers long ago and forever.
But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss!
Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,
burn incense to Baal,
go after strange gods that you know not,
and yet come to stand before me
in this house which bears my name, and say:
“We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again”?
Has this house which bears my name
become in your eyes a den of thieves?
I too see what is being done, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 84:3, 4, 5-6a and 8a, 11
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Alleluia Jas 1:21bc
Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you
and is able to save your souls.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Mt 13:24-30
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
WEED LOVERS
"Do you want us to go out and pull them up?" –Matthew 13:28
The farmer in Jesus' parable of the wheat and weeds says something I've never heard a farmer or gardener say before. He says that you shouldn't pull up the weeds because "you might take the wheat along with them" (Mt 13:29). It seems that Jesus' wheat and weeds are much more intertwined than those of other people. This is a scary thought. It's bad enough to put up with the weeds much less having to be closely connected to them.
Jesus doesn't want us intertwined with the values, priorities, morality, idolatry, and selfishness of the weeds. Jesus has chosen us out of the world (Jn 15:19). However, Jesus does want us intertwined with the weeds through love, forgiveness, evangelization, service, and mercy. Our hearts go out to the weeds, and in this way we are intertwined with them. It should be the desire of our hearts that the weeds turn to Jesus in repentance and faith. Then Jesus will transform the weeds into wheat. We are even willing to suffer [for the weeds and] because of the weeds to motivate them to let Jesus make them wheat. We will accept a lifetime of suffering if only the weeds turn into wheat before the ultimate weeding, the end of the world (see Mt 13:30).
| PRAYER: | Father, give me the grace so that the more I love the sinner, the more I hate the sin. |
| PROMISE: | "I too see what is being done, says the Lord." –Jer 7:11 |
| PRAISE: | St. Bridget's piety and charity blessed many. She was blessed to mother eight natural children, one of whom became a canonized saint. |
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