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July 22, 2017 5:00 p.m. St. Peter Parish, Douglas
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time/Centennial Celebration of Our Lady of Fatima
Bishop Bradley’s Reflections on the Readings for this Sunday
“Whoever has ears ought to hear!” What a simple, yet profound, summary statement Jesus makes today to the equally simple, yet profound, agrarian parables we heard Him tell the crowds.Remember last Sunday, Jesus told the classic Parable of the Sower and the Seed.
Jesus came to teach us about something so far beyond us----the Incomprehensible Mystery of God---but a Mystery that it is essential for us to embrace.
In today’s First Reading from the Book of Wisdom, we heard the beautiful reminder that the all-powerful God is a God who delights in showing us “mercy”---Who is “lenient” toward us---Who is constantly trying to find ways of being “one” with us; He’s not slightly interested in “punishing” us, or keeping us away from Him!
In our Second Reading, St. Paul reminded us that God’s Spirit is always trying to help us in our weakness---in our limitations---despite whatever physical or spiritual disabilities we might have! God wants to be “one” with us!
And in today’s Gospel, Jesus continued to teach the Good News of God’s Love and Mercy by using those parables that we can all easily understand.
We are so blessed in this part of southwest Michigan to live in an area that is so rich in farming, growing everything from corn, to a variety of vegetables, and all kinds of fruits. And in these mid- to late-July days, we’re able to see daily growth through the hard work of our local farmers and the thousands of migrant workers who are here among us for these summer growing months.
I had the privilege of celebrating Mass in one of the Migrant Camps just this past Thursday not far from here in South Haven. It was a beautiful setting, outdoors, toward the end of the day surrounded by the vibrancy and lushness of growth all around us in the fields. It was so very inspiring to me that even at the end of a very long, hot, and back-breaking work day in the fields, the workers were grateful to have the chance to celebrate God’s Loving Presence with them in the Holy Eucharist.
Jesus’ Parables are as meaningful to us today as they were when He first told them 2,000 years ago----as long as we, who have ears, are willing to hear!
The first of Jesus’ Parables today talked about the enemy who came to sow weeds among the wheat. In Jesus’ Parable, the Master tells the workers to let the weeds and the wheat grow together until harvest time, so as not to inadvertently hurt the wheat by trying to pull out the weeds.
We all know very well that a big part of the circumstances in our world today is that there is both “good” and “bad” growing together, side by side. The news headlines are filled with numerous examples every day of tragic and heinous acts that some people choose to do to other people, and which boggle the minds of any basically “good” person. What Jesus was trying to teach us in today’s Parable about the “Wheat and the Weeds” is that our responsibility is to let the “seeds of God’s Love” grow, bloom and flourish in our own lives, while avoiding evil and doing good. Since only God knows for sure what is “evil” and who is “bad”,only God is able to “judge”---“condemn”.
And that’s why Jesus sums up His teaching today by telling us that we really need to pay attention to what God’s ways are and live accordingly; or to put it another way: “Whoever has ears ought to hear!”. Don’t ignore God’s Word. Don’t let God’s Word “come in one ear and go out the other”. How we live our lives matters very much. It matters very much what daily decisions and choices we make, choosing between right and wrong---choosing to follow God’s ways or to “follow the crowd”.The only exception to that truism is if the “crowd” we are following are those people in our lives who love us and whom we trust; those who make up the Church/the Body of Christ of which we are all a part.
From the very beginning of time, God has spoken His Words of Love and Mercy, first directly to Adam and Eve, who broke the Original Covenant of Love by committing the Original Sin. Then God continued to speak through the Patriarchs in establishing the New Covenant of unconditional Love through Abraham, and the giving of the Ten Commandments through Moses, not as restrictions to our freedom, but as guides for us to live whole, complete, and happy lives in this world in union with God. Finally, in the fullness of time, God spoke His Word so strongly that His Word became Flesh in Jesus, Who came to be One with us, to teach us, to suffer and die for us, to bring us salvation and to reconcile the world through His Resurrection, and Who has given us His Church to guide us along the way of each of our Journeys of Faith.
And yet, humanity, even though they have “ears to hear”, sometimes refuse to do so, or listen to other voices that some people think will give them more freedom, or help them to find great pleasure.
I am so pleased to be here today for this wonderful event of the Centennial Celebration honoring the Apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima, which began on May 13, 1917, and continued over 6 months until October of that same year. Our Blessed Mother is not only worthy of our honor and veneration because she was the Mother of Jesus/the Mother of God Incarnate; we honor and revere our Blessed Mother because she is the greatest human being to ever live, and she is the first and most faithful of all her Son’s Disciples. Mary is Jesus’ Mother and Disciple. And therefore, Mary is our Model---our Guide----our Mediatrix.
Her very last words recorded in the Gospels were at the Wedding Feast of Cana. The Feast had run out of wine, much to the potential great embarrassment of the young Bride and Groom, who must have been very close to Mary and Jesus since they were invited guests. At that point, after gently letting Jesus know about the situation, Mary simply told the Waiters: “Do whatever He tells you.” And of course, we know what happened after that. That was Mary’s primary role for the rest of her human life in this world, and it has been her role throughout her eternal life in Heaven: doing all that she can to keep saying those words to a world that so often finds itself in the embarrassing situation of going astray from God, which is much worse than running out of wine at a wedding Feast.
Our Blessed Mother keeps saying: “Do whatever Jesus tells you.” That should be enough for human beings, who have “ears to hear” to listen to and to get back on track.
When Our Lady appeared to 10-year old Lucia Dos Santos, and her two cousins, 9-year-old Francisco Marto and 7-year-old Jacinta Marto, that was the message she was asking them to deliver to the priests and to the people of their world ---- to “do what God tells them to do” so that they can live happily in this world and to not lose their eternal salvation.
Our Blessed Mother doesn’t come with any new messages of her own; in any of her apparitions, she reminds us what Jesus, the Word Incarnate, came to tell all the world.
We all have ears. But do we hear? Do we listen to our Loving God and Father, to His Son our Lord and Savior, to His Holy Spirit, and to the Church, the Body of Christ? Or do we think we know better, or that other “voices” have a better, easier message?
As today’s Readings remind us: God is not out to get us; God is not interested in condemning us; God wants only for us to be One with Him and to live with Him forever in Heaven. However, God will respect our freedom to choose to separate ourselves from Him, as tragic as that would be.
Today, in a special way, we thank our Blessed Mother for the extraordinary ways that she continues to remind us through these occasional Apparitions that she makes into our world, such as at Fatima 100 years ago, as she tries to call a wayward world back to common sense. To be one with God in the simple, but very important ways of, praying the Rosary every day, respecting the Sanctity of Marriage and Family Life, and living faithfully and passing the faith onto the next generation. Let us thank God that His ways, revealed through Jesus, His life-giving Word, will continue to teach us how to live in this world, and will guide us ultimately to the Kingdom of Heaven where Jesus wants to lead us. At that point, we won’t need “parables” to explain what the Kingdom of God is like; we will be actually experiencing it “face to Face”, as we see with our eyes and hear with our ears and be united with our God for all eternity. God bless you now and always!