Understanding the Word

By Br. John R. Barker, OFM

Because of God’s unparalleled and unchallenged power, the wicked  are given opportunity to repent; divine forgiveness is not coerced  (“Neither out of fear for anyone did you grant release for their sins”  [Wisdom12:11]). God’s sovereign power ensures that God does not  need to explain or justify either condemnation or forgiveness, and is  “lenient to all.” There is no divine ego at stake, giving God freedom  to act generously. This divine mercy is a lesson to God’s people, who  learn that God’s justice is not opposed to kindness, but actually  manifests itself in kindness. God’s absolutely free justice is ground  for hope in God’s mercy. 

Paul reminds the Romans that through the Spirit they have been  adopted as God’s children and now “groan within ourselves as we  wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).  The guarantee of this hope is the gift of the Spirit, who not only  leads and transforms the faithful, but also helps them pray. Human  beings, as the agents of God’s redemption of all of creation, are  called to intercede with God, but as they are (for the time being)  subject to corruption and death, they are weak and do not know  exactly how to intercede. The Spirit dwelling in each believer makes  up for this weakness by expressing the groaning of creation and “the  holy ones,” and is heard by God. 

Three parables illustrate the kingdom of heaven. At least on this  side of eternity, it is a mix of the good and the bad. Readers have  taken the weeds and the wheat to represent either individuals or  the tendencies within each heart. In the first case, the warning is  to let God sort out the sinners from the saints; judgment is God’s  prerogative (Matthew 7:1–5). In the second case, the assurance is that  while there are within us both the good and the bad, God is patient  and, in God’s way, removes that which needs to be removed. The  other two parables reflect the biblical insistence that God’s greatest  works have small, hidden, unlikely beginnings. The kingdom (God)  works in ways that we often cannot appreciate. 

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