THE COVENANT – BLOOD RELATIONS OF GOD

July 24, Saturday

SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

     Today’s first reading describes the rite of the covenant, by which Israel became God’s chosen people with whom God made a blood compact, a Sangduguan, whereby they became his blood relations. “I am the Lord your God” (in the singular, “thy” term of intimacy). The tremendous, inaccessible God of Sinai is the God who is present to every person and who accepts to go along with people in their adventures of hope and love, of life and death. He is the God of his people. By taking the risk to be with us, he obliges us to take the risk of faith to seek him and to be near to him. Christ will raise this covenant to a deeper level and make it everlasting. At the heart of every eucharist, in the consecration, he tells us: “You are my blood brothers and sisters. This is the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.”

All around us, but in our hearts as well, weeds are growing together with the wheat – the bad with the good. This is life, and it is not easy to take. We see first of all the weeds growing in the garden of our neighbour, and we want him to pull them out. But we should look into our own hearts as well. What to do? To pluck out the bad as best as we can. And not to be upset that, after all, we are not entirely good. We have to live with it in faith and in hope and leave it all in the hands of God.

 

First Reading: Exodus 24:3-8

So Moses went to the people and told them everything God had said—all the rules and regulations. They all answered in unison: “Everything God said, we’ll do.”

Then Moses wrote it all down, everything God had said. He got up early the next morning and built an Altar at the foot of the mountain using twelve pillar-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed young Israelite men to offer Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrifice Peace-Offerings of bulls. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls; the other half he threw against the Altar.

Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened. They said, “Everything God said, we’ll do. Yes, we’ll obey.”

Moses took the rest of the blood and threw it out over the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God has made with you out of all these words I have spoken.”

 

Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30

He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.

 “The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’

“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’

“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’

“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”

 

Prayer

Almighty and inaccessible God,
you have made yourself our God
and placed yourself into our hands.
Make us conscious of all the tender love
that prompts you to take the risk
of entering our life and death,
of sharing our fleeting hopes and destiny,
of being with us all the way.
Give us the faith to take the risk
of seeking you with all our hearts,
that you may indeed be our God
and we your kinfolk and people
through our brother, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

Annoyance and Irritation of man and the Patience of God
Today the Gospel speaks of two contrasting attitudes – annoyance and irritation of man and the patience of God. The servants wants to act in haste and are impatient while the land owner represents God, who is ready to wait patiently. At times we are in a great hurry to judge, to categorize, to segregate the good here, the bad there…. Remember the prayer of that self-righteous Pharisee: “God, I thank you that I am good, that I am not like other men, malicious” (cf. Lk 18:11-12).
Pope Francis explains the parable and says, “God knows how to wait. With patience and mercy, he gazes into the “field” of life of every person; he sees much better than we do the filth and the evil, but he also sees the seeds of good and waits with trust for them to grow. God is patient, he knows how to wait. This is so beautiful: our God is a patient father, who always waits for us and waits with his heart in hand to welcome us, to forgive us. He always forgives us if we go to him.”

The field owner’s attitude is that of hope grounded in the certainty that evil does not have the first nor the last word. And it is thanks to this patient hope of God that helps us to grow up, although with malicious heart with so many sins, in the end can become good grain. But be careful: evangelical patience is not indifference to evil; one must not confuse good and evil! While facing the evils in the world, we are called to imitate the patience of God, and to trust in the final victory of good, that is of God.

There is no one who is totally evil and totally bad. In spite of all the evil behaviours, there is something good in all of us. The bad behaviours in us are the weeds, tricked by the evil in our lives. But the patient and loving God would allow us to grow with the hope of nurturing and bringing into maturity those good in each of us. The weeds of all the wrong attitudes and behaviours will be burned in the fire of God’s love and forgiveness. The good will overcome the evil and in God’s mercy, our purified self will reach him.
Let us ask Our Lady, Our Mother, to help us to grow in patience, in hope and in mercy with all brothers and sisters.

 

Video available on Youtube: Annoyance and Irritation of man and the Patience of God