Wisdom 12:13, 16-19/Psalm 85/Romans 8:26-27/Matthew 13:24-43 (or: Matthew 13:24-30)
The readings for this Sunday focuses on the goodness and mercy of God towards mankind. God does not stop loving mankind, no matter how many times mankind has sinned against Him. Although He gets angry, He does not stop loving mankind. God condemns the sin, not the sinner. His anger is not the same as humans. God still loves the sinner, but He hates the sin. As the saying goes, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." God's anger is holy. God gets angry whenever mankind sins, but He is merciful towards mankind. He gives them a second chance to start again. His anger does not decrease His love for mankind.
The First Reading tells us of God's mercy and kindness towards mankind. God is the most all-powerful among everything. Although God is the all-powerful among everything, He uses His power to love His creation, especially mankind. If God willed, He would've said, "I am the most powerful of all beings. I do not care about what you do." God would've just ignored His creation. But, God did not choose to ignore us. God chose to humble Himself and love us despite our imperfections.
The First Reading also challenges us to love and be kind to one another, just as how the Lord God is loving and kind towards us. Just because the Lord is merciful, loving and kind towards us doesn't mean we can't share it with others. The Lord is merciful, loving and kind towards all us, and He wants each and everyone of us to experience His mercy, love and kindness. We have to share it. We have to be merciful, loving and kind to others, just as how God is merciful and loving towards us.
The Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday also shares the same message: God is merciful and kind. God is slow to anger. He does not get angry at once just because mankind has sinned against Him. God is still merciful and kind towards mankind. Not a single sin stops God from being kind and merciful towards us. The Lord God listens and answers our prayers. Just because humankind has sinned against Him, it doesn't mean God will not listen and automatically rejects our prayers to Him. Instead He listens and answers our prayers. This is how merciful and kind God is to us.
In the Second Reading, Saint Paul the Apostle tells us that we are not alone when we pray. The Spirit of the Lord helps us pray. We could not pray by ourselves. We are not worthy to call upon and pray to the Lord God. This is why the Holy Spirit helps us. He helps us unworthy sinners to pray to God. He is the Paraclete, our Helper. The Spirit of God is always there to help us to call upon and pray to God. God listens to the prayers of the Spirit for us. This is how the Spirit helps us pray to God. The Spirit prays with us to God. The Spirit prays to God for us.
Jesus continues to explain in the Gospel how God is kind and merciful towards mankind. He explains how God is kind by using another parable. The good seed or the wheat being sown represents the good people and the weeds that was sown represents the bad people. The vineyard also represents the earth. When the householder along with his slaves came outside to look at the vineyard, the householder realizes that an enemy is responsible for the weeds being sown among the wheat. It is no fault of anyone except for that enemy.
When the slaves offered the householder to pull the weeds at once, the householder prevented them from doing so. Why? Because the wheat might be pulled as well. The householder could have chosen to sacrifice the wheat just to get rid of the weeds. But no. The householder was very smart. For the householder, the wheat were important to him. So, he waits until harvest time. When harvest time comes, then he will separate the weeds and the wheat, keeping the wheat and burning the weeds. This shows how patient the householder is. He would wait until harvest time to get rid of the weeds.
This is also the same case as God and us. God is patient with us. He doesn't judge as quickly just because we sinned against Him. Although God gets hurt and angry whenever we sin against Him, He doesn't judge us quickly. God waits patiently for us to change. He knows that just because we've sinned, it doesn't mean that we will have no chance of changing. God gives us a chance to change our lives and turn back to Him. He knows that at some point, we would change our lives and turn back to Him. This is why God gives us this opportunity to change ourselves.
But, just because God is patient, it doesn't mean we can abuse the patience of God. The time will come when God will judge mankind. When will that take place? The end of time. The Lord will judge the living and the dead. The Lord will separate the good ones from the bad ones. At the end of time, He will reward the just and punish the wicked. The Lord will put an end to all the evils around the world. God is being patient with us, so we better use the chance God gave us wisely. We have a lot of time to change our lives and turn back to God, but we don't have forever to do it. The time will come when we will be judged by the Lord. The question is, which side will each and everyone of us be on? The side of the just or the side of the wicked? The weeds or the wheat?
No matter how bad the sins we committed are, it would not match the mercy and kindness of God. In one of the Lord Jesus' appearances to St. Faustina, He said, "My Mercy is greater than your sins and those of the entire world." The Lord is kind, patient and merciful towards us, and He gives us the opportunities in our lifetime in order to change our lives. He does not judge us quickly. Let us use the opportunities given to us by the Lord God in order to change our lives and ask His mercy and forgiveness from Him. He is waiting for us. Why? Because He is patient, kind and merciful. Not even one sin could prevent the Lord from being merciful towards us.
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento