Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A), July 20, 2014 – Wis 12, 13. 16-19; Rom 8, 26-27; Mt 13, 24-43
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness (Rom 8, 26)
The perfection of God is the source of his disinterested generosity, his lenient patience and his sharp vision.
God’s perfect liberality does not settle for the human norm of paying back evil for evil, good for good. Our heavenly Father is kind to the just and the unjust.
The perfectly Powerful is very secure besides in his mastery over all things. No one can thwart his plans. Hence, the temporary triumphs of evil do not make him anxious.
The perfect searcher of hearts also perceives better than we do. He does not disparage the lowliest, uncultured folks, not even the so-called public sinners and illegal immigrants. He values them and reveals to them the mysteries of the kingdom. And his Son makes out of these folks his little community that is destined to become God’s royal people, welcoming and growing ever larger. Anointed with the Spirit and sent by the Father to evangelize the poor, Jesus shares with his disciples his Spirit and his mission to infect, so to speak, everybody with the Gospel.
Yes, Jesus makes use even of those with wavering faith. He challenges and urges them to strive to have the superabundant goodness that is open to the good and the bad alike, and to live according to the beatitudes.
God looks with favor, yes, on those deemed nothing by the world and does great things through them. Thus it remains clear that everything depends on God and that he has the care of all, which means that his chosen ones should not worry. Secure when insecure, by God’s gift, and wise while foolish, they need not prove themselves powerful by resorting readily to means that do more harm than good. They know well that “often good works are spoiled by moving too quickly,” to quote St. Vincent de Paul (Coste IV:122).
No, Jesus’ elect do not make judgment before the appointed time. They are like the farmer who awaits the rain with patience and the harvest with hope.
Nor are they easily impressed by appearances, not even by an ostentatious display of power. They do not crave greatness, and they associate with the lowly instead, in imitation of the one who offers his flesh and blood as vital food. Preaching by good example mainly (Coste XI:277), they leaven patiently, more than they instruct, all humanity with the yeast of the Gospel. Their final destiny will be that of the firstborn from the dead, from those reduced to nothing, then turned into the firstfruits of the resurrection, the nullification of those are somebody in their own eyes, and the perfection of the imperfect.
Ross Reyes Dizon
Tags: A Vincentian reading of the Sunday readings, Ross Dizon
