This weeks' reading speak of judgment, hell, and forgiveness. There is commentary following the 1st Reading AND the Gospel.
Reading 1
Wis 12:13, 16-19
There is no god besides you who have the care of all,
that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.
For your might is the source of justice;
your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved;
and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us;
for power, whenever you will, attends you.
And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.
1st Reading and Psalm -The Just Judge
The first reading describes God as lenient and talks about how he judges with lenience. Let's go through an exercise for a moment. Think of 3 really bad sins you have committed. Please do this now.
Example sins just to refresh your memory:
Right now, think of 3 really bad sins you have committed during your life.
Those sins were terrible weren't they? You probably don't want to commit them any more. Now after committing those sins, did God kill you? Probably not, since you are reading this. We should remember that at any time during our sins, God could have lost patience with us and just erased us from existence or sent us to hell. Yet, he hasn't done this yet. He hasn't done it yet, because he judges with leniency. As this week's Psalm says, God is "slow to anger".
The first reading reminds us that God has taught us by his deeds. God teaches us by example. He gives life to us despite that he has nothing to gain from it, rather he only wishes to share. By God's example of generosity, we know to help the poor man on the street even though we have very little to gain from it. God offers us forgiveness for our sins, and in doing so, he teaches us to forgive our friends, family, and even the biggest enemies of God.
Our Hope, His Loyalty, Our Prayers
The reading goes on to say that we have a reason for hope. Our hope is that we turn away from our sins. What this means is that although God is the almighty judge and he does punish sinfulness, he gives us easy access to hope. We can give up our sins and live in peace and love with him and the entire family of believers. Our hope is that we turn away from our sins and to God instead.
In this week's Psalm, David says that God is "abounding in fidelity". That means that God is loyal. How do we know that he is loyal? Again, we can look at the sins that we committed and the fact that God has not abandoned us. Like a faithful spouse of an faithful spouse, he wants us to remain together forever even though we offended him terribly. His mercy and generosity shows that he IS LOYAL forever.
This Psalm says that God is good and forgiving. David then asks God to hear (hearken) his prayer. Remember that our hope is that we repent (turn away) from our sins. When we do this, we must turn towards the Lord, because he is good and forgiving. Many of us turn to our friends when we screw up instead of God. We ask our friends to hear our stories in hope that they will agree with OUR side of the story. Instead of asking for forgiveness from God, we ask for sympathy from our pals and in doing so, we wallow in our sins and we ARE NOT forgiven. Instead of doing this, let's take our sins to God the way David did and receive the forgiveness that we need and hope in.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
Reading II
Rom 8:26-27
Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.
Gospel
Mt 13:24-43 or 13:24-30
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, 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 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."'"
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 it 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 prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has 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 send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
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."
Judgment
This gospel is VERY simple and straight to the point. In Jesus' parable, the children of the kingdom go to heaven, and the children of the evil one go to hell for eternity. Who are the children of the evil one? Jesus describes them as, "all who cause others to sin, and evildoers". Are we evildoers? Do we cause others to sin? I remember once before, I knew a girl who was using a guy for money. I advised her to get all she could get. I caused her to sin. In another example, a friend of mine advised his buddy that because he is extremely wealthy, he should not have a girlfriend. He then suggested that his buddy could have sex with lots of girls instead of having just one girlfriend.
Some people might say, "people have their own choice". But make no mistake, our friends and family listen to what we say. As an example, do you ever see certain movies because your friends recommend them? Have you ever visited a doctor or dentist because of someone's recommendation? Of course you have. Our words are POWERFUL enough to lead someone to heaven or hell. We should be more careful about what we say to others.
We cause others to sin all of the time, especially our best friends. We tell them to watch terrible television programs. We allow our children to do whatever they want! We sing songs that glorify sin!4 The singers of these anti-heaven songs are causing others to sin! According to Jesus, what happens to those who cause others to sin? THEY GO TO HELL!
God the Merciful Judge
We have to remember that as Catholics, we don't believe in just certain passages of the Bible, we believe in the whole thing. The whole message of the Bible indicates that although hell exists, God is merciful. God does not want us to go to hell. He leaves it up to us. Our hope is repentance, just as in the first reading. We believe that God is slow to anger and he is forgiving. Just look at the good thief whom Jesus forgave only moments before the thief's death. This thief admitted to committing a crime that deserved death. In America, almost all men who are executed are killed because they are either murderers or rapists. This thief committed terrible crimes and Jesus forgave him because the thief was sorry for what he had done. Remember that Peter sinned terribly against God by denying that he knew Jesus. Jesus' reaction was to forgive him. It's important to remember that although we CAN choose hell, it's not the choice that God wants for us.
Jesus Warns Us
On MANY occasions, Jesus warned people about the existence of hell and the road that leads to it. Some examples include:
Some people argue that God is loving and there is no hell. This argument is completely illogical and totally wrong. Just like the teaching of the Eucharist, the passion, and forgiveness, Jesus repeats his most important teachings. This warning about hell is an important teaching to Jesus and to us as well. In an act of love, Jesus warns his friends of danger. After all, a fake friend will pass his alcoholic friend a drink, while a real friend would knock the drink out of his friend's hands and then warn him about alcoholism. Just the same, Jesus loves us. He did not come to condemn us. He came to save us.2
Hope
In Matthew chapter 20, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard. There are complaints when those who showed up at the last minute still got a full day's pay. Part of the message of this parable is this: even though we have all sinned, it is NEVER too late to say sorry to God and to turn away from sin. As David says in the psalm, giving us permission to turn away from sin, is "good ground for hope". Let's put our faith in Jesus, who came to save us.
The Point
Reading 1
Wis 12:13, 16-19
There is no god besides you who have the care of all,
that you need show you have not unjustly condemned.
For your might is the source of justice;
your mastery over all things makes you lenient to all.
For you show your might when the perfection of your power is disbelieved;
and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity.
But though you are master of might, you judge with clemency,
and with much lenience you govern us;
for power, whenever you will, attends you.
And you taught your people, by these deeds,
that those who are just must be kind;
and you gave your children good ground for hope
that you would permit repentance for their sins.
1st Reading and Psalm -The Just Judge
The first reading describes God as lenient and talks about how he judges with lenience. Let's go through an exercise for a moment. Think of 3 really bad sins you have committed. Please do this now.
Example sins just to refresh your memory:
- Renouncing God, cursing God, involvement in other religions, denying your faith
- Sins against your parents
- Abortion, assault
- Sexual sin, adultery, pornography
- Stealing, lying
Right now, think of 3 really bad sins you have committed during your life.
Those sins were terrible weren't they? You probably don't want to commit them any more. Now after committing those sins, did God kill you? Probably not, since you are reading this. We should remember that at any time during our sins, God could have lost patience with us and just erased us from existence or sent us to hell. Yet, he hasn't done this yet. He hasn't done it yet, because he judges with leniency. As this week's Psalm says, God is "slow to anger".
The first reading reminds us that God has taught us by his deeds. God teaches us by example. He gives life to us despite that he has nothing to gain from it, rather he only wishes to share. By God's example of generosity, we know to help the poor man on the street even though we have very little to gain from it. God offers us forgiveness for our sins, and in doing so, he teaches us to forgive our friends, family, and even the biggest enemies of God.
Our Hope, His Loyalty, Our Prayers
The reading goes on to say that we have a reason for hope. Our hope is that we turn away from our sins. What this means is that although God is the almighty judge and he does punish sinfulness, he gives us easy access to hope. We can give up our sins and live in peace and love with him and the entire family of believers. Our hope is that we turn away from our sins and to God instead.
In this week's Psalm, David says that God is "abounding in fidelity". That means that God is loyal. How do we know that he is loyal? Again, we can look at the sins that we committed and the fact that God has not abandoned us. Like a faithful spouse of an faithful spouse, he wants us to remain together forever even though we offended him terribly. His mercy and generosity shows that he IS LOYAL forever.
This Psalm says that God is good and forgiving. David then asks God to hear (hearken) his prayer. Remember that our hope is that we repent (turn away) from our sins. When we do this, we must turn towards the Lord, because he is good and forgiving. Many of us turn to our friends when we screw up instead of God. We ask our friends to hear our stories in hope that they will agree with OUR side of the story. Instead of asking for forgiveness from God, we ask for sympathy from our pals and in doing so, we wallow in our sins and we ARE NOT forgiven. Instead of doing this, let's take our sins to God the way David did and receive the forgiveness that we need and hope in.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
R. (5a) Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are good and forgiving,
abounding in kindness to all who call upon you.
Hearken, O LORD, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my pleading.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations you have made shall come
and worship you, O LORD,
and glorify your name.
For you are great, and you do wondrous deeds;
you alone are God.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
You, O LORD, are a God merciful and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity.
Turn toward me, and have pity on me;
give your strength to your servant.
R. Lord, you are good and forgiving.
Reading II
Rom 8:26-27
Brothers and sisters:
The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.
And the one who searches hearts
knows what is the intention of the Spirit,
because he intercedes for the holy ones
according to God's will.
Gospel
Mt 13:24-43 or 13:24-30
Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, 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 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."'"
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 it 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 prophet:
I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has 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 send his angels,
and they will collect out of his kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
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."
Judgment
This gospel is VERY simple and straight to the point. In Jesus' parable, the children of the kingdom go to heaven, and the children of the evil one go to hell for eternity. Who are the children of the evil one? Jesus describes them as, "all who cause others to sin, and evildoers". Are we evildoers? Do we cause others to sin? I remember once before, I knew a girl who was using a guy for money. I advised her to get all she could get. I caused her to sin. In another example, a friend of mine advised his buddy that because he is extremely wealthy, he should not have a girlfriend. He then suggested that his buddy could have sex with lots of girls instead of having just one girlfriend.
Some people might say, "people have their own choice". But make no mistake, our friends and family listen to what we say. As an example, do you ever see certain movies because your friends recommend them? Have you ever visited a doctor or dentist because of someone's recommendation? Of course you have. Our words are POWERFUL enough to lead someone to heaven or hell. We should be more careful about what we say to others.
We cause others to sin all of the time, especially our best friends. We tell them to watch terrible television programs. We allow our children to do whatever they want! We sing songs that glorify sin!4 The singers of these anti-heaven songs are causing others to sin! According to Jesus, what happens to those who cause others to sin? THEY GO TO HELL!
God the Merciful Judge
We have to remember that as Catholics, we don't believe in just certain passages of the Bible, we believe in the whole thing. The whole message of the Bible indicates that although hell exists, God is merciful. God does not want us to go to hell. He leaves it up to us. Our hope is repentance, just as in the first reading. We believe that God is slow to anger and he is forgiving. Just look at the good thief whom Jesus forgave only moments before the thief's death. This thief admitted to committing a crime that deserved death. In America, almost all men who are executed are killed because they are either murderers or rapists. This thief committed terrible crimes and Jesus forgave him because the thief was sorry for what he had done. Remember that Peter sinned terribly against God by denying that he knew Jesus. Jesus' reaction was to forgive him. It's important to remember that although we CAN choose hell, it's not the choice that God wants for us.
Jesus Warns Us
On MANY occasions, Jesus warned people about the existence of hell and the road that leads to it. Some examples include:
- Matthew 5:22 - "Fiery Gehenna"
- Matthew 5:29 - "Your whole body thrown into Gehenna"
- Matthew 10:28 - "….both body and soul in Gehenna"
- Matthew 13:42 - "They will throw them into the fiery furnace"
- Mark 10: 45: "thrown into Gehenna"
- Matthew 22:15 - "into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth."
Some people argue that God is loving and there is no hell. This argument is completely illogical and totally wrong. Just like the teaching of the Eucharist, the passion, and forgiveness, Jesus repeats his most important teachings. This warning about hell is an important teaching to Jesus and to us as well. In an act of love, Jesus warns his friends of danger. After all, a fake friend will pass his alcoholic friend a drink, while a real friend would knock the drink out of his friend's hands and then warn him about alcoholism. Just the same, Jesus loves us. He did not come to condemn us. He came to save us.2
Hope
In Matthew chapter 20, Jesus tells the parable of the workers in the vineyard. There are complaints when those who showed up at the last minute still got a full day's pay. Part of the message of this parable is this: even though we have all sinned, it is NEVER too late to say sorry to God and to turn away from sin. As David says in the psalm, giving us permission to turn away from sin, is "good ground for hope". Let's put our faith in Jesus, who came to save us.
The Point
- Despite years of sinning, God has not killed us. He wants to forgive us
- God is a generous, lenient judge. We can see this by looking at Jesus' life
- A huge source of hope is that we can turn away from sins and receive forgiveness
- We know that God is loyal because despite all we have done to offend him, he sticks with us to the end.
- We nudge our friends and family towards the path to hell with what we say to them
- Hell exists and God wants to warns us not to choose hell
- It is never too late to turn away from sins. As Catholics we believe that in order to go to hell, we have commit mortal (serious) sin and persist in it until the end.3 So, there is always hope and always an opportunity to be saved all the way until the end of our lives.
Real Life
I have mentioned this incident before, but I would like to tell this story in more detail.
About 6 months ago, I went to a Catholic retreat. There, I saw a priest with a huge beard who gave several talks. I was very intrigued by this man as soon as I saw him. There was something special about him, and I wanted to meet him. So, I waited in a long line for confession and there were 3 priests available to hear confessions. I made sure that I got to see the guy with the huge beard.
When I sat next to him and looked into his eyes, I felt like I was looking at Jesus. It wasn't just because the guy was a priest and he had a beard. As soon as I sat down with this man, I knew that he LOVED ME. I just knew it. It was radiating from his whole being. For a very brief instant, I was a little bit scared, because I felt like he could see my bad spiritual condition. But because of his love, I almost immediately felt total peace and comfort. I felt as though I could tell him anything.
After confessing about 3 really bad sins and telling him that I was ashamed of these sins, he said, "those are pretty big sins". I raised my eyebrow at that surprising comment. He went on to say, "those sins are like drops in the ocean of God's mercy. Listen to me very carefully, God is going to forgive you now for all of the sins you have ever committed. Do you understand I said, "yes". I closed my eyes and felt a light touch on my head. It felt very strange and tingly, so I peaked through my eyes and saw that the priest was not touching me. It was literally the hand of God touching my head! During the absolution it felt as though a mountain was being lifted off of my back. While my eyes were closed, I could see the ocean of mercy that the priest spoke of. It was incredible.
Before the retreat had started, I was hoping that God would speak to me regarding my vocation and the purpose that he had for me for my whole life. Rather than reveal that to me, God granted me forgiveness. It reminded me of the story of the healing of the crippled man in Mark 2:1-12. The man wanted to be healed of his condition. Jesus didn't say to the man, "I heal you in the name of God!" No, rather he said, "your sins are forgiven". He gave the man exactly what he NEEDED, not what he wanted. Just like the crippled man, God gave me EXACTLY what I NEEDED instead of what I wanted, and soon afterwards it was easier for me to walk the path God had for me, just like this crippled man
On this particular occasion with the huge-bearded priest, God gave me exactly what I needed and exactly what he wants to give to all of us. He wants us to have real HOPE that comes through turning away from sin (repentance)
God loves us!
=======================Mass Excitement #21=====================
1- there is no #1 sorry
2 - John 3:17
3 - CCC 1037
4- I was recently at an abortion "clinic" and one of the visitors drove off listening to a popular song called "promiscuous girl" in which the singers celebrate promiscuity.
2 - John 3:17
3 - CCC 1037
4- I was recently at an abortion "clinic" and one of the visitors drove off listening to a popular song called "promiscuous girl" in which the singers celebrate promiscuity.
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