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Created: 19 July 2020

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year A

The Gospel of this Sunday, Matthew 13: 24-43, narrates Jesus' teaching. He uses parables to talk about the Kingdom of God.

The parable of the Weeds among the Wheat talks about the children of the kingdom of heaven living with the children of the devil ones. (Matthew 13: 24-30).

The parable of the Mustard Seed speaks of the longing to see God’s world to grow. “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.’” (Matthew 13: 31-32)

The parable of the Yeast refers to the spread of the kingdom of God. “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.” (Matthew 13: 33)

With our faith, we all know and believe that God always loves us all. We have been created to share the happiness with God in his eternal home. Because of our disobedience, we lost the divine life with God. Yet God did not abandon us forever but wanted to redeem us from the power of darkness and death. The Son of God came into the world to fulfill the will of the heavenly Father. Assuming the human nature, Jesus Christ lived among us. He has made known to people the love of the Almighty. He invites all of us to renounce the old way of life in sin. He speaks of the kingdom of God where there is only peace and happiness. It is the place where people can be with the loving God. Through his passion and resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ reconciled the sinful world to God.

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord. For by his birth he brought renewal to humanity's fallen state, and by his suffering, cancelled out our sins; by his rising from the dead, he has opened the way to eternal life, and by ascending to you, O Father, he has unlocked the gates of heaven. (Preface IV of the Sundays in Ordinary Time, Roman Missal)

Surely, the door to the kingdom of God is open to all people of the world. So do each of us really want to go in?

Jesus has taught us to be living witnesses to God’s Kingdom. So have we been living fully with our own call?

We pray and hope that each of us live well with our own tasks!

Fr. Phi Nguyen