Reflection for July 23, Saturday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time: Matthew 13:24-30

Gospel: Matthew 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.”’”

+ + + + + + +

Reflection:

Do you fear the judgment of God?  

God’s judgment is something that we all fear to come to us the reason perhaps is we are not yet prepared for it. There are times however that God’s judgment day would come to us when we least expect it. And when it comes to us we can’t do anything about it anymore we have to accept it whether we like it or not. For example if God will bar us from entering heaven we have to accept it and we can’t do anything about it no matter how hard we resist it.  

If God will judge us to be in hell it simply means that the time that we spent in this world during our lifetime was not worthy in HIS eyes.  This means that we led sinful lives most of the time. Perhaps there were also instances wherein somebody called our attention to embrace God and leave behind everything that makes us sin. Yet we chose to ignore that call towards repentance.   

Our gospel today offers us hope. It tells us that before God’s judgment comes to us. God will offer us first many chances for renewal or repentance. Let us therefore take advantage of this offering of God. This we can do by walking away from all our sins and by humbly asking forgiveness from HIM.  

The Good Lord will not immediately judge us for what we do now no matter how sinful it is. This is for the reason that HE knows that deep within us lies goodness and our willingness to walk away from all of our sins. Truth be told, God is a patient God, a God of forgiveness, hope and love. A God of second chances HE will wait for us until we heed HIS call of repentance.  

But what if we choose to ignore HIS call of repentance no matter the many chances that HE gave us, what will happen to us sinners if we ignore God’s call of repentance? -  Marino J. Dasmarinas