Gather the Wheat

July 20, 2008

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.

For your might is the source of justice; your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all. Wisdom 12:16

In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will. Romans 8:26-27

"If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, 'First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" Matthew 13:29-30

Piety

Lord, you are kind and forgiving, most loving to all who call on you. LORD, hear my prayer; listen to my cry for help. Psalm 85:5-6

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/072008.shtml

The love of the Cross of Jesus is the counterintuitive of Christianity.

It grows out of a personal love of Christ. We love him so much that we do not want to be any different than the Christ of the Gospel. To be just like the Christ of the Cross is to realize that the Cross of Christ is the revelation of the so great love of God. Christ loves us so much he is willing to take upon himself the penalty for our sins. Our closeness to Christ in our willingness to suffer for the sake of others is to share Christ's love for us in our being Christ's love for others. Love is the giving of our life for the sake of others. We do it by sharing our time and our energy. All the ways we make another's needs the purpose of our actions is to live in a wondrous way the piety of Christ.

How we put up with the evil of life that surrounds us is part of the Story of God's love in us. Even as we reject what is wrong about life around us, we learn how to live with what we cannot do anything about.

The good we do in our lives coexists with what is wrong about life. God allows us to be tempted even as Christ was tempted by power, honor and glory. The Last Judgment will be the harvesting time when the good we have done will be separated from the evil we cannot do anything about.

It is the Spirit interceding for us according to God's will that shows us that we did not fail in our weakness. God reads our hearts and rewards us for the good we are trying to do. The mustard seed of what we do can make us seem to be failing to our world. Yet the Hidden Life Grace is the reality of the ordinary of our life becoming the extraordinary because of what God can accomplish in the purity of our hearts intention to do what is right even though it be misunderstood by our world. The Spirit speaks for us in the groans of our heart. God listening to God rewards us according to the intentions of our heart.

Study takes place in our lives by the examen of the consciousness of Christ in our daily actions.

Action

Each of our actions is leavened by the yeast of Christ's love within our hearts. Our attempts to put on the mind and the heart of Christ make us who we are in God's love. Every action that we undertake in our lives has the good seed of the Son of man when we are doing our bit to make our world a better world in the love of Christ. The measure of the worth of what we do will be seen when we shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father. The weeds of our lives will be burnt up in the love Christ has for us in the good we have tried to do in his name. Our Spirituality is the putting on the mind and the heart of Christ so that what we do can be called the work of Christ in our lives. We need to love him so much that his word sounds out in the good works of our lives.