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Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
Romans 8:26-27
Matthew 13:24-43
As I shared with you a couple of
weeks ago, I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and just a few days later made the
long trek down to Denham Springs. I have seen that as rather providential,
because I have always loved to travel. The joy of seeing new places, meeting
new people, experiencing new adventures, and creating new stories are all
wonderful things to do, but for me the best part is being able to come back and
have that renewed appreciate for being home. As I was praying with the readings
this weekend I was struck by that reality and the fact that home has so many
levels which we can understand. For instance, if we travel overseas the customs
agents will often say “welcome home” when returning to the United States; I can
be in New York City, but I’m still home. If we just go on a road trip to
another state, there’s that big blue “Welcome to Louisiana” sign to welcome you
back to Louisiana – welcome home. Though there is no clear marker, when I start
to get near the Baton Rouge area there is a sense of being home. And as of July
1, my final destination for ‘home’ is the rectory here at St. Ann’s.
That image came to mind because
the Lord gives us today a series of parables on the kingdom of Heaven
describing where it can be found. And then at the end of the passage He speaks
of the kingdom in the future sense, as also being something in the future.
There is a sort almost-but-not-yet reality; theologically we describe it as
‘liminality’.
The ultimate reality of the
kingdom of heaven – the St. Ann’s rectory, if you will – is the experience of
Heaven itself. It is the encounter with God that never ends and in which He has
absolute reign and authority, such that there is no longer sin or death, sorrow
or despair, doubt or fear. Those things will be completely conquered in the end
and there will be simply peace, love, joy, and all of those things that we long
for in this life but cannot attain in their fullness. Although we cannot attain
these things in their fullness yet, it does not mean that we can’t experience a
taste of them in this life. This is what Christ speaks to us about in the
parables – that reality that is already among us and in our midst where the
kingdom of heaven is present in a seminal form. He uses parables to help us to
see where it can be found, its characteristics, if you will. And if we look at
them with the eyes of faith, we can see that the kingdom of heaven is the Body
of Christ on Earth – the Catholic Church.
The first clue is that the
kingdom of heaven is like a field with good and bad seed. The Lord instituted
the Church knowing that its members would not always be perfect, but that ‘the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ In the field that is the Church,
there are many, many saintly people – the good wheat sown by God – but there is
also that small group of people who are not godly people but have simply acted
as such for some purpose. It shouldn’t surprise us to find that those who harm
the Church the most these days are Catholics themselves. After all, it was
Judas, one of the Twelve closest to Jesus who was the betrayer. And yet, the
Lord was greater than that and the eleven continued to bear much good fruit in
the salvation of souls and preaching of Gospel message. The Church is perfect
in herself, but her members are sometimes flawed as individuals.
The second clue is that a small
mustard seed shall become a large bush. Here, too, we can see how the Church
began as a small see with the Apostles and disciples of the Lord and yet has
grown today to include billions of people today and many more throughout
history. The words of Jesus about ‘every bird of the air’ finding a place is
symbolic of the fact that the Church reaches to the ends of the Earth and has
sought to evangelize every people that she has encountered, welcoming them to
find shelter in her.
Lastly, the Church is that
insignificant amount of leaven added to leaven three whole measures of wheat
flour. The Church has literally changed the course of the world; things would
be drastically different were it not for the presence of the Body of Christ all
throughout the world. This is no exaggeration, but a statement of truth and it
fulfills that third characteristic expressed by the Lord.
The kingdom of heaven is indeed a
place in the future and it is a place all around us and in which we find
ourselves making a home as the other birds of the sky have done. But there is
yet a third aspect to consider: that the kingdom of heaven is within you and me
as individuals. We are each a sort of microcosm of the larger Body of Christ
and the aspects evident in the whole are also detectable in ourselves. The
weeds alongside the good wheat remind us that we are fundamentally good people,
but that we have flaws, we sin. The good news is that we don’t have to wait
until the end of the age to be separated by the angels, but rather we can go to
that confessional in the back of the church and allow the Lord to forgive us
our sins and to pluck up the weeds now so that we can become today the perfect
field God desires us to be in Heaven. Too, our faith begins small but grows
exponentially in size. Most of us were baptized as infants, so we were not even
aware of the seed of faith that was planted in our hearts with those blessed
words “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit.” And where are we today? Large bushes giving much fruit as we live our
lives, grow in our understanding of the faith, and encounter the Lord God
daily. And lastly, we are that leaven that changes everything. The other day I
went to go visit one of our parishioners and in the course of our conversation
she turned to me and said, “Father, when you can kiss your 90th
grandchild on the head, things aren’t that bad.” It hit me because her simple
yes to the Lord in her vocation as a wife and mother has brought into existence
100 other people who wouldn’t be here otherwise. We can say the same of each of
our families, but the reality is that we can say in the life of faith too. If
we let ourselves be used by the Lord, the world around us will also catch fire
with the faith and others will have life in the Spirit because of us.
Now, all of this is fine and
good, but the question is how to do this? How do we build up the courage to let
the Lord pull out the weeds? To persevere in nourishing our faith? To say yes
daily to being an instrument in God’s hands? At the sake of being
overly-simplistic, I say the Eucharist.
The Eucharist is the Body, Blood,
Soul, and Divinity of Jesus Christ; the flesh of God Himself! Come to Mass each
week and enter into the mystery that we celebrate. If you can, come to daily
Mass, even if it’s only once a week. It changes us. He changes. The other day I
stopped at Jack in the Box and got my usual cheeseburger combo with fries and a
coke. That’s fine to do once in a while, but if I did that every day you’d soon
recognize that I’ve been eating pretty well lately, right? The same with our
spirits! If we fail to give our spirit the food that it needs, it will be
completely unhealthy and will be starved for something wholesome. If, on the
other hand, we eat of the Eucharist that can heal every ill and convert our
hearts, we will be strong in spirit. Come to Mass, come to Adoration, come
spend time in the church with the Lord Jesus! The Scriptures tell us that it is
the Spirit who comes to aid us in our weakness and we get that Spirit every time
we receive Holy Communion. Let us not be afraid of our weakness in this life,
but rejoice in it and bring it to Jesus, because when we are weak, Jesus is our
strength.
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