. . . St. Irenæus (2nd. C.) does not hesitate to speak of whole races who had been converted to Christianity, without being able to read the scriptures. To be unable to read or write was in those times no evidence of want of learning; the hermits of the deserts were, in one sense of the word, illiterate, yet
the great St. Anthony, though he knew not letters, was a match in disputation for the learned philosophers who came to try him.
... John Henry Newman (1801-1890), What is a University?
(God will give us the words we need when we need to give witness to the Gospel. Trust!)
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Ex 33:7-11; 34:5b-9, 28; Psalm 103:6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13
Mt 13:36-43
Jesus dismissed the crowds and 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.”
Reflection on the Scriptures
I’ve heard this image of wheat and weeds related to discernment. Is this thought wheat - coming from God, leading to greater freedom and love, and worthy of cultivation? Is it a weed – not of God, something I can let go of and stop giving energy to? Does this pattern of behavior or thought cultivate the field for the wheat, or allow the weeds to spread further? This kind of discernment is easiest when we have a
close relationship with God, like Moses in the first reading: speaking to God honestly, face to face.
I’m sure Jesus (and Matthew) didn’t intend to make a pun in English at the end of this passage. However, it does strike me that the fruit of wheat is called an “ear,” like corn is. I can picture Jesus smiling as he holds up an ear of wheat to his disciples as he said, “Whoever has ears ought to hear. … If you have wheat growing in you and bearing fruit, you can hear this and respond.”
- by Molly Mattingly
The Son of God Became Human
From The Catechism of the Catholic Church
Part One, Section Two, Chapter Three
Article 8: I Believe in the Holy Spirit
III. GOD'S SPIRIT AND WORD IN THE TIME OF THE PROMISES
The Spirit of the promise
706 Against all human hope, God promises descendants to Abraham, as the fruit of faith and of the power of the Holy Spirit.68 In Abraham's progeny all the nations of the earth will be blessed. This progeny will be Christ himself,69 in whom the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will "gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad."70 God commits himself by his own solemn oath to giving his beloved Son
and "the promised Holy Spirit . . . [who is] the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it."71
(Footnote references in the Catechism.)
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