Fr Jack SJ MD: Homily for the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Rom 8:26-27

Mt 13:24-43

The first reading from Romans brought to mind a quote from St. Bonaventure that I cited in the homily for his recent memorial. I edited it so as to include only the prescriptions and ignore the opposing proscriptions: “seek the answer in God’s grace . . . in the longing of will . . . in the sighs of prayer . . . seek God . . . and not man . . . .”

"In the sighs of prayer."

Sometimes it is impossible to describe or understand prayer in any language. At times prayer is a mystery of inexpressible groans as described in Paul's letter, or it is the prayer poetically described by St. John of the Cross when he wrote:

"En una noche obscura

con ansias en amores imflamada . . ."

"Once in the dark of night,

inflamed with love and yearning, . . ."

Those inexpressible groanings and yearnings define the contemplative side of our lives, a side that may be more or less prominent depending on the mode of life and its demands.

Today's gospel picks up at the end of last Sunday's, continuing a series of parables that will come to an end with next week. The parables are a critical component of the New Testament. They instruct in a particular and always memorable way in part because they are easy to recall. Medical students oftentimes find that they learn more from, and have better memory for, case studies than for the frequently anesthetic-like prose of textbooks. In his parables, Jesus presents us with short case studies that we have to think through, explore, and enter into so as to understand them. My physician dad, who died 46 years ago this past Wednesday repeatedly emphasized beginning the moment I got accepted at Temple, the habit of reading the weekly case studies in the New England Journal of Medicine, a habit I continue today.

Some of Jesus' parables have become parts of everyday English: the Prodigal Son, the Good Samaritan, and the lost sheep to name a few. They are treasures of our faith.

Jesus continues to use images of seeds in the parables today. First he tells of good seed that was contaminated with weeds by an enemy. Then follows the short parable of the mustard seed that is haiku-like in its simplicity. As was true last Sunday the gospel passage ends with Jesus explaining the meaning of the parable to his uncomprehending apostles after the crowds were sent away.

The evil one has been sowing his seeds since the beginning when Cain murdered Able out of jealousy. Obviously, the situation has continued to deteriorate until today. The nature of the sins may have changed but the underlying motivations of pride, lust, greed, and all the other named sins, have not changed. Humanity is quite creative in coming up with new responses to the temptations of the evil one, and modes of responding to his urgings, whether the name be the devil, Satan, Mephistopheles, Lucifer, or any of the others used to describe the sower of evil thoughts, wicked desires, and sinful actions.

Today that creativity is reflected in what advertising executives call "rebranding," a technique of renaming something for any number of reasons including dissociating it from a dark history or failure Thus abortion has been rebranded women's health while killing the sick elderly in their beds has been rebranded physician prescribed death.

Jesus explained the parable of the weeds and wheat after the crowds departed. Oddly, the apostles did not ask about the parable of the mustard seed. There are two possible explanations for that: they either got the point of the parable without explanation or they were so distracted by the first parable they didn't pay attention to the second. I'll go with curtain number two.

The parable of the mustard seed is fascinating. Using very few words it describes how the tiny seed of faith sown in us at conception and blossoming at birth, can flourish into a very large bush. As any gardener knows, plants must be nurtured to at least a minimal degree. Faith must also be nurtured, attended to, and cared for if it is to increase.

The amount of care and attention we give to our faith through prayer, meditation, and the sacraments, will determine whether the faith we do have will increase thirty or a hundred fold, or whether it will wither and fade.

The choice is up to us

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Boston being hit by a few days of over-90s heat. Mostly staying in. There was a time when I would run in this kind of weather, particularly after the sun had set. Those days are long gone but fondly remembered. The photos below are from the Vermont mountains. I lived further north in Hartland for four years on a small mountain road overlooking the valley and the Connecticut River. Had no a/c but only needed to sleep in the finished basement perhaps twice each summer. It was a good time of life.

Looking more or less east over Arlington, VT.