Episode Transcript
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Welcome to the Blessed Sacrament Homilies Podcast where our mission is to help everyone recognize and experience the presence of God. We hope you are nourished and encouraged by the Word. Thank you for joining us.
[00:00:26] Speaker B: The Lord be with you and with your spirit. A Reading from the Holy Gospel According to Matthew Glory to the Lord.
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowd, saying, the kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep, his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat and then went off.
When the crop grew in bore fruit, the weeds disappeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said, master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have all the weeds come from?
He answered, an enemy has done this.
His slaves said to him, do you want us to go and pull them up?
He replied, no, if you pull up the weeds and you might uproot the wheat along with them, let them grow together until harvest.
Then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into my barn.
He proposed another parable to them.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full grown is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.
He spoke to them another parable.
The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.
All these things. Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables to fulfill what had been said through the I will open my mouth in parables. I will announce what was lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house.
His disciples approached him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.
He said in reply, he who sows good seed is the Son of Man.
The field is the world, the good seed, the children of the kingdom.
The weeds are the children of the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will come with his angels and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evil doers.
They will throw them into the fiery Furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear the gospel of the Lord.
[00:03:50] Speaker A: Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: A summer day, a Sunday afternoon. I can probably predict what you're going to have for dinner today.
Let me guess, it's a bagged salad, right?
Of course, you're not.
In fact, I wouldn't want to own a business that tried to sell those. Right now, we're all a little nervous about it.
And I think what can make us the most nervous is that you can't see it, you can't taste it, you can't experience it until it's too late. It scares us.
Well, on the actual opposite end of the spectrum, Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God.
And he uses things like the tiny mustard seed or yeast mixed into dough, things, at least at first you can't see, you can't necessarily recognize, but in reality is still there in abundance.
And what he wants us to understand is that in all truth, we never need to be scared because the kingdom of God is always around us.
We're surrounded by it so much and can't always even see it.
And it's that presence of the kingdom that allows God to continue to act in his people, in us.
And it's what can and in fact should always make us people that are optimistic.
That no matter how bad the world can seem at times, no matter how scary it can get, no matter how depressing it can be, the reality of it is the kingdom is always in our midst and that we can trust full heartily that God is still there.
And in fact, we can experience that presence in sometimes very real and profound ways.
If you have ever experienced the kindness of a stranger in your life, that is evidence of God's kingdom at work.
If you have ever received a phone call, when you are truly sad, when you're suffering, when you feel all alone, and it is the kind and loving voice of a family member or of a close friend, just letting you know that they care, that is evidence of the kingdom of God.
If you have ever been at a point in your life where you are lacking for something and through the generosity of another, you no longer are lacking, that is evidence of God.
And if you've ever screwed up so badly that you think you cannot possibly be forgiven and another forgives you, that is evidence of the kingdom of God.
And the other part of that equation, the other part of the story, is that there are opportunities and times for us to reveal that same presence of God's kingdom to another whenever we do any of those things for another person.
So we never have to lose our optimism, no matter how bad things may feel at any particular time.
Because the reality of it is the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed. It is like the yeast in a measure of dough.
It is so all encompassing, so much surrounding us, that even though we may not always see it, we can trust it's there.
