The Patience and Power of God

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Reflecting on the Word

By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Our experience of the world is often an experience of opposites: truth and lies,  goodness and evil, beauty and ugliness. They are found in intimate proximity,  often on the same page of the newspaper or in the same half-hour news report,  and intertwined in the same human heart. Their existence is connected to human  freedom as well as to the power of sin and evil in our world. 

Jesus tells a parable that makes the same point as the author of Wisdom: God’s  exercise of power is tempered by leniency and mercy; God’s justice is balanced  by loving-kindness. Our desire to pull up and destroy the weeds prematurely could destroy the good wheat. While the interpretation in the Gospel applies  this image to different groups in a community, we can also hear this parable as  referring to the weeds and wheat, the evil and goodness residing in the heart. 

Jesus says God’s active presence in the world is something as small as a mus tard seed and as fragile as a pinch of yeast, yet each contains a power that, when  released, will bring about growth and expansion.

In the meantime, the challenge is being as patient with others as God is, while  working with God to purify our own hearts. Last week Jesus warned about the  sluggish heart; today he pictures a contaminated heart, good interpenetrated  by evil. But the power of God is stronger than the power of evil and death. Be  patient, and remain open to the workings of God’s grace. 

Consider/Discuss

  • What do you see as “weeds” in your life, in the community, in the  world? 
  • Where have you seen the power of God at work in small and hidden  ways? 
  • How can the patience and kindness of God work through you? 

Responding to the Word

We respond by praying: “O God, you have given us the gift of life; continue to  keep us alive in Christ Jesus. Bring us from death to grow in faith, hope, and love.  We remain patient in prayer and faithful to your word, until your glory is revealed.”

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