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1st Reading – Jeremiah 7:1-11
The following message came to Jeremiah from the LORD: Stand at the gate of the house of the LORD, and there proclaim this message: Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD! Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Reform your ways and your deeds, so that I may remain with you in this place. Put not your trust in the deceitful words: “This is the temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD! The temple of the LORD!” Only if you thoroughly reform your ways and your deeds; if each of you deals justly with his neighbor; if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the orphan, and the widow; if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place, or follow strange gods to your own harm, will I remain with you in this place, in the land I gave your fathers long ago and forever. But here you are, putting your trust in deceitful words to your own loss! Are you to steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, go after strange gods that you know not, and yet come to stand before me in this house which bears my name, and say: “We are safe; we can commit all these abominations again”? Has this house which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves? I too see what is being done, says the LORD.
Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 84:3, 4, 5-6A AND 8A, 11
How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
My soul yearns and pines
for the courts of the LORD.
My heart and my flesh
cry out for the living God.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Even the sparrow finds a home,
and the swallow a nest
in which she puts her young—
Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my king and my God!
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Blessed they who dwell in your house!
continually they praise you.
Blessed the men whose strength you are!
They go from strength to strength.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
I had rather one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I had rather lie at the threshold of the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
R. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord, mighty God!
Gospel – Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “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 and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have 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 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.”
THE WHEAT AND THE WEEDS
Introduction
Jeremiah decries the people’s attachment to false securities: the temple, their religious practices. For their attitude in life does not correspond to the lip service that they give to God. They do not seek God, for they are unjust to their brothers and sisters, oppress and exploit them. Their formalism will not save them. Neither will the false securities of formalistic religion save us.
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 neighbor, 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 hope and leave it all in the hands of God.
Opening Prayer
Lord our God, you know it:
our hearts are divided,
torn between good and evil.
Give us clear eyes to look
into our own hearts
rather than in those of our neighbor
and to accept that we are not as good
as we like to be.
Make us grow up to become more like him
who was your perfect image and our model,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Intercessions
– That the Church may be patient and forgiving with her children who err, so as to give them new chances, we pray:
– That families may be patient with their children and their problems, that their love may endure and grow, we pray:
– That in our Christian communities, we may not judge and condemn but grant one another the space and the time to do better and to grow in Christ, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
Lord our God,
here on this table is bread
from pure wheat.
By the power of your Holy Spirit,
change this bread into your Son,
and change our hearts,
overgrown as they are
with the weeds of sin,
in a pure offering to you,
our God, for ever and ever.
Prayer after Communion
Lord our God,
accept our thanks for sowing in us
the promise of a good harvest.
Bring it to full growth
in the hope that what we cannot do,
you can accomplish in us
through him who died for us,
that we might live
and grow to his full stature,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Blessing
God is patient with us. He gives us the time to heal and to grow. Let us show the same care and patience with one another, and may Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
