Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr. Ben Riley

One of my favorite things to do on my day off is to visit the outdoor attractions and natural wonders surrounding Harrison and beyond. There are hundreds of these places scattered around the state, and they always have unique and memorable names. Natural Bridge, Glory Hole, Hawk’s Bill Crag, Goat Bluff, Stack Rock, Lost Valley, and the list goes on. About six months ago, a friend of mine invited me to see one called Raven’s Bluff. I had never seen this beautiful vista or even heard of it, but my friend, let’s call her Ann, she knew where she was going. We had a great day. It was pretty cold, and all the leaves on the trees had fallen, so the view was pretty spectacular. But surprisingly the best part of our day wasn’t the view from Raven’s Bluff, the best part of our hike was the conversation we shared along the way.

I have been friends with Ann for about 11 years, and yes, priests can have friends who are women. I am also good friends with Ann’s fiancé. We met through another mutual friend at the rock-climbing gym and became fast friends. But something that may surprise you, is that most of my friends who are either rock climbers, mountain bikers, or outdoor enthusiasts are not particularly religious people. Maybe they were raised in a religious family, but don’t practice any kind of faith now. So on our hike, Ann and I talked about her religious upbringing, her beliefs, and why she doesn’t practice any faith tradition.

We discussed a lot of topics. Mostly different aspects of Christian doctrine that she doesn’t agree with. The usual topics of abortion, contraception, and the prohibition on premarital sex. We also spoke about the evidence for the Christian faith. The primacy of the Bible, Saint Thomas Aquinas’s proofs of God, the testament of faith exemplified by Christian martyrs. We also discussed various miracles such as: Eucharistic miracles, Marian apparitions, incorrupt saints. And along with proofs of God through His grace, we also discussed the reality of evil and the necessity of ministries like the right of exorcism. As you can see, it was a long hike and a pretty detailed conversation. But what was surprising to me, and honestly something I still need to pray more about, was that none of these topics was the real problem for her accepting the faith. She was mostly at odds with the hypocrisy of so many Christians. How so many people in our country claim to be faithful Christians of various denominations, but then commit horrible and sometimes very public sins. She doesn’t see the point in being a Christian, if so many Christians live sinful lives. She mentioned the clergy sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church as a prime example. And this hypocrisy, so prevalent in all faith traditions, is the focus of Christ’s parables in our Gospel today. Why would He allow the wheat to grow alongside the weeds?

One of the reasons we may disbelieve that the Catholic Church is the one, true, apostolic, Church is because of the presence of hypocrisies and willful sinners within the visible Church. In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, Jesus addresses and explains why God permits this to be the case. God permits sinners within the church, to allow them the opportunity of repentance and reconciliation. Were he to execute judgment in this age, some destined for repentance would be judged prematurely. The Church fathers understood this parable as counseling against condemning the imperfect believer too quickly. Hear this quote from Saint Jerome, “for room for repentance is left, and we are warned that we should not hastily cut off a brother, since one who is today corrupted, may grow wiser tomorrow, and begin to defend the truth.”

Unfortunately, this tendency to harshly judge Christians is not only something that disbelievers struggle with. We too are often very judgmental and condemning of our brothers and sisters. We say it all the time, “Hate the sin but love the sinner”, and yet, we cannot differentiate between the two, particularly for those in authority, or for those we believe are greater sinners than ourselves. This is folly. If we wish to receive the mercy of God, then we must be merciful ourselves. The wheat is growing alongside the weeds, but it is not the job of the wheat to cut down the weeds. That job belongs only to the gardener.

So often we are scandalized by the behavior of other Catholics, and members of the hierarchy. And I have known many who used this argument as an excuse for not participating in the sacraments or the life of the Church. Honestly, I’ve never fully understood the logic of this argument. It seems to me to be like refusing to attend an exercise class because not all the participants try their hardest. So, does the laziness of others mean that you shouldn’t try to get in shape? Of course not. Jesus tells us this parable so that we do not become surprised and scandalized by the presence of evil doers within his visible body. We should not conclude that since the visible Church is not pure, the visible Church is not the manifestation of the Kingdom of God. We should also keep in mind that, although in this life we may complain about God’s tolerance of the weeds in the Church, at the final judgment we may find that we ourselves were weeds. So often we are completely blind to our own sins and hypocrisy, but quick to point out the sins of others. Jesus warns us to remove the beam from our own eye before taking the speck out of the eye of our brother.

Finally, this parable soberly warns us about the reality of the final judgment. Contemporary sensibilities and our modern culture might prefer a vision in which all people go to heaven, and out of love we should certainly hope so, but Jesus’ actual teaching contradicts this. At times, we have to decide whether we are going to trust the word of Jesus or accept the false Gospel of our times. Jesus’ warnings here and elsewhere in the Gospel are firm and straightforward and in no way imply that hell is only a theoretical possibility. The reality is that we can distort our souls in such a way that we end up calling good evil and evil good. One of the primary ways we tend to do this, is by limiting the mercy of God, implying that our sins are not as serious as other peoples. Again, if we are to accept God’s mercy then we must be merciful ourselves. The wheat grows alongside the weeds. This is God’s plan, so that the weeds may have an opportunity for a conversion and repentance. Who are we to question God’s plan? What right does the pot have to question the design of the potter?