HOMILY WEEK 17 02 – Year II
On Being Good Seed in the Kingdom of God:
Optional Memorial of St. Peter Chrysologus
(Jer 14:17-22; Ps 79; Mt 13:36-43)
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The gospel today and the parable of the weeds of the field suggest that Jesus was not a gardener who would have known no one has to sow any weeds – they automatically come up on their own!
As a spiritual gardener, however, Jesus provides us with a very important and clear message – be good seed in the kingdom of God; to be righteous so we can shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.
One sure part of any gardening experience is the presence of weeds that come up all on their own, ready to crowd out the good seeds that are planted. It is like that in life, and in the church. The Word of God creates the Church, the community of those who strive to build up the kingdom. But this Church is never absolutely pure and untrammeled, for God’s ways are opposed by a spiritual power, an enemy. His task is to sow weeds among the wheat—clandestinely, quietly, unobtrusively.
According to Bishop Robert Barron, this sort of coming together of good and evil is to be expected. The Church will always be a place of saints and sinners, and the sinners will often look like saints. The enemy of the Church, who never rests, ensures it.
Vigilance in regards to evil is necessary in a fallen world, yet we must be wary of a zeal that, in its passion for setting things right, comes to believe that evil can be dealt with by destroying what is good. In the midst of a fallen world, what is expected of us is that we live in hope that at the end, at harvest time, the Master will separate the good from the bad.
Interestingly, there are two words used to describe the evil one. One word that Jesus uses today, is “devil,” from the Greek word “diablos” meaning “to divide.” So, any divisive force within our families, communities, organizations and society that seeks to divide people and groups from one another, to turn people against each other, is a kind of diabolical force.
The other word used to describe the evil one, “Satan,” is just the opposite. Satan gathers people together, but for the wrong reason – to kill, harm, murder and destroy. Think of gang activity, Boko Haram and ISIS, or even many mob incidents.
Our task is to be good seed within the kingdom of God. We can do that in different ways. One sure way is to place our faith in Jesus as Son of God, Risen Lord, Savior and Messiah. A second way is to do his will, as he did the will of the Father. The best way to do that is to keep the commandments he gave us, namely to love God with our whole being, to love others as we love ourselves, to love one another as he has loved us, and especially, to love our enemies which is done best by forgiving them from the heart.
Another way is to do our best to live the Beatitudes that are a summary of the teachings of Jesus, especially accepting some persecution for the sake of the kingdom, which Jesus tells us places us within that kingdom – “For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Another way to be good seed within the kingdom is to come to Jesus for his forgiveness and healing. As the Messiah, Jesus came to redeem and to sanctify, to forgive and to heal. A spirituality of weeding tells us we need both. If we just cut weeds off at ground level with a hoe, they will simply grow back. If we receive only forgiveness for our sins, we will probably just do them all over again. As the Messiah, Jesus wants to heal us of our sinfulness, that which makes us sin.
The best way to weed is to pull the weeds out by the roots, then they won’t grow back. When I pull a thistle out by the roots, I feel satisfaction, because I know that weed will not grow back – it is gone for good. It is the same with us. We need both forgiveness for our sins, that which we have done wrong, and also healing of our sinfulness, that which makes us sin, our painful emotions and defects of character. I can imagine Jesus’ satisfaction when we ask him to not just forgive us, but also to heal us, to make us whole.
A related way to be good seed is to move towards a more contemplative style of prayer, which allows what is buried in our subconscious rise to the surface, be recognized, and dealt with by taking it to Jesus in prayer. This is the kind of prayer Jesus will always answer, because it is prayer in his name, according to his will, praying only for what he already wants to give us an accomplish in us.
There is an amazing power in all good seeds. One day Fr. Bill Stang OMI walked by my compost bin as he was planting small shrubs into some new topsoil. Noticing a tiny plant sprouting out of the compost that had survived the winter, he plucked it up and planted it into the fresh topsoil among the shrubs. To our amazement, that tiny plant flourished and grew into a pumpkin plant twenty feet long that produced some huge pumpkins.
A helpful idea regarding being good seed in the kingdom of God is to recall that person who has been most influential in our life, blessing us, advising us, affirming and positively guiding us along life’s path. That person was or is good seed in the kingdom of God, and an invitation for us to do likewise, to also be a positive influence on others in our lives.
St. Peter Chrysologus
Today, the Church invites us to honour St. Peter Chrysologus, who was truly good seed within the Church. Peter, born in Italy around 406, became Archbishop of Ravenna about 439. When he arrived in his diocese, he found a strong pagan influence and many lapsed faithful. Through his labors, paganism was eradicated and the faith revived. He was a concerned pastor and preacher and earned the title Chrysologus (“of golden words”) because of his inspirational homilies, many of which are still extant. He died around 450 and was made a Doctor of the Church in 1729.
The Eucharist is like a spiritual garden, in which Jesus is already forgiving and healing us, and empowering us to be good seed, to be righteous so that we will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.
