Sixteenth Sunday of the Year

The gospel continually calls us to seek to do relationships differently. To do that means we need to question how we classify people and situations. In the face of evil and people hurting others by unkindness, lack of care and malice, the gospel whilst acknowledging the negative invites us to hope. The parables turn traditional values upside down. Jesus reverses our understanding by insisting that there is wheat among the weeds, not weeds among the wheat. The word is that God is present amid evil, destruction, inadequacy, and insignificance. God is not limited by human weakness or failure. Evil, brokenness, pain, and sin are realities in our world but do not have the last say. God is patient. It comes from love and unlimited concern for all creatures. This is the soil from which God can work. Positive fruitfulness can be found in the messy field. Clearly, the Church is not meant to be a sect of perfect people. We are asked to check our assumptions about what we classify as ‘weeds.’ Might we be mistaken? Might we judge things to be harmful when they are not? Jesus’ teachings about peace and liberation were viewed as a weed that needed to be removed. What was viewed as a weed as with the mustard seed, was actually a lifegiving tree.

The Edmund Rice Centre for Justice and Community Education continues to promote ways to encourage young people to become advocates and to work for justice. There are many ways we can express our commitment as well as learn the core messages. ‘Australia is a nation that is inherently passionate about sport’ (The Starting Line by No2ndPlace, 2023) and our young people are connected more than most. 82% of Australians believe that sport can make important societal change (The Starting Line).

Fifteenth Sunday of the Year

When Jesus is with people something always important is happening. He uses their language to communicate something about God and about ourselves. Jesus refers to the openness of heart to the message of God’s reign with various descriptions of soil. Jesus’ hearers expected God’s kingdom to be the restoration of Israel to great political and economic power; the Messiah would be a great warrior-king who would lead Israel to this triumph.  Jesus’ parables subtly and delicately led people, without crushing or disillusioning them, to rethink their concept of the Reign of God. The parable of the Sower teaches that the fruitfulness of the seed (God's word) depends on the soil being open (the human heart’s willingness to embrace it).