SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME [A]
Today’s Gospel parable of the wheat and the darnel, in which evil is not destroyed the moment it appears on the earth, shows God’s patience but also sheds light on the problem of evil: evil may exist now, but when God’s plan is finally achieved, when the ‘harvest’ comes, it will not be so.
The Book of Wisdom, from which the First Reading comes, has much to say about the problem of the existence of evil. Wisdom is the youngest book of the Old Testament, probably dating only from about 50BC. It was not written in Hebrew, or in the Holy Land, but in Greek, and in the Egyptian city of Alexandria where there was a large Jewish population living in the midst of people many of whom spoke Greek and were familiar with Greek thought, especially ideas about immortality, the soul, and the existence of good and evil. The Book of Wisdom was clearly written to help these Jews in Egypt remain faithful to the religion of their ancestors while coping with new waves of ‘alien’ thought.
God, says the author, is lenient; he does not violently exterminate evil. That does not mean he cannot do so. In the first instance he is always looking for a change of heart, for repentance. This is encouraging, for sinners who turn to God with sincere repentance will not be disregarded.
For the Second Reading we continue to read from the letter of St. Paul to the Romans.
Christ’s coming has linked us in a new, intimate way with the Father. Christ has breathed the Holy Spirit on us to allow this relationship to continue. As we saw last week, that relationship is not perfect, yet. But the Spirit allows us to long expectantly for the time when perfection will come.
Our relationship with God depends on prayer. Here again, our prayer is imperfect, whereas Christ’s prayer as Son to Father is perfect. However, we can trust the Holy Spirit to pray for us in a perfect way, translating, so to speak, our fumbling little efforts at prayer into something fit to reach the Father’s ears. The Spirit also brings the Father’s answer; again, because we do not understand the ‘perfect’ language of God, we may not be able to see the way in which God lovingly answers our prayers. In the Spirit, however, we may be confident that God the Father does so answer our prayers.