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Rather than saying that hell exists and some amongst us are going there, father said the point of the parable is that the wheat were enjoined to convert the weeds into wheat. Why bother reading the Gospel if it doesn’t actually say what it means?
I attended Latin mass at St. Margaret’s and St. Leonard’s church in Edinburgh. The subject of the sermon was St. Mary Magdalene, whose feast day was yesterday. St. Mary Magdalene’s conversion from a sinner to a saint gives us all hope and the peace that comes to us after Confession is a sacred one.
Our parish priest, a Vincentian missionary from Nigeria who is working in our diocese on a long-term basis, preached about the Gospel. Simply: there is evil about in this world, the enemy – the Devil – is active: be on your guard. I can’t remember a British or Irish priest speaking so straightforwardly about the Enemy and the he evil he can do. Clergy from West Africa seem to be much simpler in their approach to sin and evil – calling a spade a spade and directly quoting from Scripture. Sarah for Pope!!
Our Parochial Vicar preached primarily on the first reading explaining about the mercy of God and what was meant by “But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, and with much lenience you govern us;” He explained that being lenient did not mean we could sin in whatever way we wanted and be fine, but because God knows all about our faults and weaknesses, we should keep fighting despite how easily we fall. It was good encouragement.
In my homily I asked, ” If the harvest was to happen today, would the harvester mistake you for a weed?”
OF: Based on 2nd Reading. The Holy Spirit fills us with His gifts and graces to grow in holiness. We need to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit to help us overcome our weakness and sins.
EF: Based on Gospel. There are false prophets in all times. We have them also. Media trying to corrupt morals, and destroy the Church. Politicians who support laws that go against the moral law. And clerics who water down the teaching of Christ and the Church. We must remain faithful, even if we were to be the only one remaining.
The priest said that the Church is the Kingdom of God, present on Earth, filled with good and bad. The enemy has done this, but it has ever been so and will be until the harvesters come. The Church is the mustard seed that grows to great size.
And as the Church is the Holy body of Christ, she remains Holy even when people in it are the weeds, because His body is not corruptible, which means it clings to the Lord and the sacraments. We are not to be afraid or worried, but to lead a holy life, to recognize we are called to be fruitful wheat.
That unlike actual wheat or weeds, we have God’s Mercy and Grace through the Church and her sacraments to transform us. So we can be the weeds but become wheat if we cling to the Saints and the sacramental life of the Church.
Excellent homily today! Sin and the Evil One exist, and we ignore this at our peril. Those who fall into the trap of relativism are taking the gentle path to perdition (this reference is from The Screwtape Letters, which our homilist encouraged everyone to read). We must avail ourselves of the Sacraments (especially by receiving the Eucharist and going to Confession), pray fervently, and resist temptation in order to maintain our proper relationship with God. There is hope even in a world corrupted by sin and evil; Jesus tells us so in His parables and Saint Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit is ready to intercede for us with the Father.
Lots of emphasis on sin, the existence of the Evil One, and our obligation to nurture the “wheat” in our own hearts so that the weeds, which come from sin, can’t take root and destroy our relationship with God.
At last I get to chime in! Attended a TLM and we had a visiting priest–a well known exorcist whose name you would recognize–and he gave a wonderful sermon: he spoke about justice, restitution, reparation, sin, confession and the offenses against God. So good to hear good Catholic teachings!
Today I attended a recently ordained priest’s first Mass. The Assistant Priest gave the sermon. He spoke of a priest being a crown for a family and for a parish. He spoke of how the lack of priests stems in part from a lack of men willing to be unselfish. He then spoke about how the priest still has all of his humanity after his ordination but yet now is able to forgive sins and institute the Eucharist.
A good priest from Vietnam who emigrated to Canada, gave his homely on the bad weeds and the good wheat… how they are difficult to distinguish because Canadian society promotes the “weeds” (accurate, I know…). He talked about those “weeds from the devil” in society who are promoted like good things with big fancy words, abortion, drugs, assisted suicide… but who are in fact the works of the devil.
The oldest priest in St Kevin’s church (ordained 1965/6, grad of All Hallows, Dublin, still a college but no longer a seminary) made a very notable point for Sunday Mass of the seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The apostate priest Luther allows his scruples and self obsession to overcome him entirely, and from this blow to Christendom many martyrs were added to the Roman Martyrology including during the French Revolution, and more recently on this very day, a great number of Passionist religious and priests slaughtered at Daimiel around this time in 1936. Scruples and self obsession can be toxic.
Father spoke about the gospel, moving from the wheat to the parable of the mustard seed to make an interesting point using one of his personal favorite saints – Damien of Molokai.
Point being God can work tremendous deeds (in His good time) from the smallest things and beginnings, even (in the case of Damien) of challenging (deadly) circumstances, skeptical superiors, personal limitations in ability, and personal shortcomings (pride and temper).
I delved into two ways to take the parable of the wheat and the weeds: that the field is our own life, and that the field is the world. The first idea came from Father Basil Maturin, who did some insightful studies of the parables over 100 years ago; the second of course is how our Lord presents it. Along the way, I talked about conversion, the bad habits that take root in our lives such as pornography, God’s intolerable patience, and a few other things.
What are the weeds in prayer? Jesus says, “While everyone was asleep [the farmer’s] enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat. . .” Notice that everyone was asleep. They weren’t keeping vigil. No one was on watch. And b/c no one was watching, the farmer’s enemy was free to sow weeds. When we are not paying attention to our spiritual lives, when we are living life as if God doesn’t exist, the Enemy is free to sow his weeds.
https://hancaquam.blogspot.com/2017/07/the-weeds-of-prayer.html
Fr. Philip Neri, OP
Our pastor is on vacation. We have a presider/priest who has been with us as a fill-in for the last eight years at least. Our congregation loves him. In his homily he took a very different approach than what I read here. He focused on determining what is wheat and what is weeds and who and when to determine what to do do about the weeds. In other words, how should we use/not use judgment about others; Jesus and the Father will make those decisions at the end of time.
I was blessed to hear His Eminence Francis Cardinal Arinze preach today at Sacred Heart Parish in South Euclid Ohio. His Eminence spoke on ACTS – Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication to God and how this can lead to a heart full of charity and bear good fruit in one’s life. He was concerned with calling us to holiness today.
After mass he gave a 20 minute talk in the school gym one of the messages of Fatima (penance and reparation) and the universal call to holiness (reminding us in a strong firm voice that serving as an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion is NOT our highest calling in the laity – I got a good belly laugh out of that – as did His Eminence). The talk meshed well with his homily.
It was a good day.
Pastor Fr. D preached on the first words in the Gospel, those who are asleep – as in, they are slumbering unaware of the devil who creeps in and sows evil and temptations. Every moment is in battle with the Evil One, so if you are not aware of the battle going on, you are asleep. And if you are asleep, you are in Satan’s power.
NO Mass, with Bishop Nickless in Iowa:
Do you believe in hell and that people go there? Jesus’ and the Church’s teaching on hell, the gift of free will as God’s great love for us & our responsibility for our choices. The great mercy in the 1st reading evident in God’s willingness to forgive us even if that penitence is in the last second of our lives. Bishop Nickless often preaches the countercultural gospel (I posted about his homily last week, too) and it was terrific to hear him give a doctrinal homily on damnation.
In your kindness, please pray for this faithful shepherd and the priests of his diocese.
EF Mass. We will always have a master – it can either be sin or God. Not being a slave to sin can be difficult as the Tempter tailors his bait for us. He knows our weak points. Each sin makes subsequent sin easier – we are on a slippery slope. But God at baptism gave us a new nature. We are now “dead to sin and alive in Christ Jesus our Lord”. We need to learn scripture just as Jesus used ion the desert to fight temptation. This is possible because God’s grace is always greater than sin. We need to always keep in mind who we are and whose we are. In sanctification God frees us from sin and sets us on a journey to be what God created us.
We have a new pastor, his formal installation was yesterday. His homily began by explaining what darnel is, and then explained the 3 kinds of weeds that are most pernicious in our society are
* relativism
* individualism
* secularism
He then said that as part of his installation he will make a professional of faith and an oath of fidelity. From that he promised to do everything in his power to sow the good seeds of Christ.
(Diocesan) EF Mass in a small, liberal Northeastern city: Father used readings and Bl. JH Newman’s remarks on two paths (Rome and atheism) to speak about attempts throughout history to navigate a via media between the orthodox Catholic position and heresy. He spoke of semi-Arians and semi-Pelagians and Anglicanism and applied those historical lessons to today’s Church and world.
It was about dealing with difficult people in as much as the wheat the the weeds have to grow up side-by-side, and the need to be humble since the Master of the Harvest will sort it out in the long run.
Our priest told us that whether we are a weed or the wheat is in our own hands, and that it is not too late for anyone to amend their life for the good. I also came across Fr. Paul Scalia’s homily for the day and highly recommend reading it. He is rock solid.
https://www.thecatholicthing.org/2017/07/23/guarding-the-kingdom/
Vickey McBride did a great job also this past weekend. http://catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/07232017
I also heard Cardinal Arinze and was struck by his assertion “Whoever has something to suffer has something to offer.”
Father’s homily was quite good…though initially he had me bracing for impact when he started talking about the ‘hook-up culture’. Wasn’t quite sure where we were going with that at first, but it was a solid message and a difficult one to address. Luckily, the 9 year old and ten year old’s attention spans were maxed out at that precise moment when particulars were discussed…and there was something intensely interesting in the carpet…so I was spared the barrage of “What did Father mean when he said…” questions. I do believe there were some folks in the pews who needed to hear that message…and God gave Father the courage to preach it and my boys the grace not to hear certain things. So all’s well.