July 21, 2002

Father Owen's Homilies

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 21, 2002

In my small garden this year I planted some red, sweet peppers from seed. The peppers (I thought) and the grass grew up together. After a while there were no peppers visible. The grass was highly visible. The harvest came early. No peppers! No grass! As I daily looked at what was happening or at what was not happening with the peppers, a line from the Gospel of today struck me forcefully. “Let the weeds and the crop grow together until harvest time…”

God is patient. I guess each one of our lives is a testimony to that. The story of the relationship between God and the Chosen people is a story of patience. Time after time the people were dishonest, impatient, demanding of the God who showed them such great love. This even after then had created idols for themselves. In due time, God sent the Son who was also rejected. We are the beneficiaries of that rejection. We who once might have been the weeds.

It is so easy to be unlike God. So easy to write someone off after the first disappointment. So easy for us to beat ourselves to death when we do not measure up to our own or to another’s expectations. How easy to forget the enduring love and patience of God. How easy to forget that God is not like we are. We want a zero tolerance policy for others and yet ask for a thousand pardons for ourselves.