Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A
Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr A
23 July 2017
Homily
We continue to hear Jesus’ description of what the Kingdom of God is “like” today. I always find it interesting that he never says that the Kingdom “is”, always that it “is like”. He is very carefully being non-prescriptive, he is opening possibilities - not closing them.
One point he does make though, is that the kingdom is now. It is already present.
Following this, Matthew’s community – and ourselves, have a question. If the Kingdom of God, the Reign of God, is already present, why does evil still exist? The follow-up is what do we do about it?
In Palestine, there is a weed called darnel. In its early growth, it looks virtually identical to wheat. By the time it can be identified, its roots are so intertwined with the wheat that it cannot be uprooted without the wheat being removed as well. Hence Jesus’ image here. Note he tells the community to leave it to God. Looking back at Christian history, this is a rebuke to all those attempts in the past to ensure doctrinal “purity” by punishing, or even killing, those deemed to be heretics.
Of course part of this is because good and evil – or the potential for it -are present in all of us. Our very strengths, if pushed too far, can lead us to sin. Hence those arguments for things like abortion or doctor assisted killing. At the root is a genuine wish to alleviate pain and/or suffering. Remember in our Baptism promises, we refer to “the glamour of evil”. Many of you will have heard me speak about how “glamour” is an Old English word meaning a form of magic that hides an ugly reality behind and attractive façade.
People rarely choose to do what they know to be evil. They believe, or have convinced themselves, that what they are doing is for the greater good.
Finally, we must not take the image of judgement as some form of threat. It is intended as a comfort. It is intended to remind us that in the end, all that is evil in the world will pass.