16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

The readings can be viewed by following this link: http://www.usccb.org/nab/072008.shtml

The focus of this week’s reflection will be on the Gospel passage where three parables of Jesus are linked together. One wonders why Matthew chose to put these three parables together. All of them are agricultural in nature, which may be one reason why they are connected. However, there is a profoundly theological reason for their grouping as well.

The parable of the sower who went out to sow good seed is clearly a reference to God the Father, as we saw last week. The seed is the word of God, who is Jesus the Lord. What is striking is the great mercy that God shows in allowing the weeds and wheat to grow together until harvest. It would be our natural inclination to attempt to pull the weeds, but those who know wheat farming know that chaff looks very similar to wheat, and that this weed wraps itself around the root ball of the wheat, so that if you did attempt to pull it out you would most certainly damage the wheat as well. Here we see the work of God the Father at work in the world, being ever patient, as patience that is emphasized in the first reading and the responsorial psalm.

The second parable we hear is that of the mustard seed, and as we’ve seen throughout Matthew’s Gospel, the seed is always the word of God, who is Jesus. Thus, this parable is about the work of God the Son, who dies as the seed does in order for a great growth to result. This growth of the mustard tree is a symbol of the Church, where birds of all kinds – people of every nation – come to find refuge. Again, we have an echo of this idea in the responsorial psalm, where it states that all nations shall come and worship God.

Finally, the parable of the yeast in the dough gives us the action of God the Holy Spirit at work in the world. The Spirit is often unnoticed in our daily lives and our prayer life and theology. Like the yeast in the dough, it is permeated throughout the whole mass of humanity, silently at work enabling us to rise to our full potential. The second reading addresses this silent work. We don’t know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit living in us – individually and in the Church – enables us to pray as we ought. That rising of the yeast is our prayer – individual and communal rising up to God – is inspired by the Spirit and is ever at work in our lives, if we but look for it.

Thus, our readings today take on a profoundly Trinitarian orientation. We see the work of God in each person and in a variety of images. Let us be attune to that work in our lives and cooperate fully with that work so that it bears abundant fruit.