Sunday the 19th of July 2026 - The Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19/ Ps 86(85)/ Romans 8:26-27/ Matthew 13:24-43

Many of us may have tried to cultivate a vegetable patch in our gardens or allotments. Some of us may have become quite successful, providing fruit and vegetables for ourselves and others from our perseverance and patience. It can be a frustrating undertaking as we contend with the relentless progress of weeds that always seem to grow bigger and better without any help from us. We might have done everything right, prepared the soil, chosen the best seeds, watered them faithfully every evening. Then, one morning we go outside only to find weeds everywhere. In the middle of the tomatoes, peas, and beans. The first reaction might to be to rip the weeds out and burn them there and then, but if we did that we might also rip up the good plants we took such care in planting and are now entangled with the weeds. We hear that patience is a virtue, sometimes patience is the way to save what is worth saving. The patient gardener bides their time. This is the kind of gardener God turns out to be in the Gospel today. When the servants find the weeds and are keen to tear them out their master tells them to allow both to grow together until the harvest. Then they will be separated and the weeds burnt.

God allows the good and evil to grow together. This can be misinterpreted as God creating or allowing evil in the world. Why would God permit evil to grow alongside good? Why does He not simply uproot wickedness from the world, communities, and our hearts? The answer can be found hidden in the first reading from the Book of Wisdom. The mildness and forbearance God shows to his creation is not weakness but strength. God is a sovereign in strength, but He judges in mildness and love. In His mastery over all things God is lenient to all. God's creation is good, the evil we see comes into the world through the disobedience of humanity and is not created by God. It is a consequence of the gift of free will that we have from God, a sign of his unconditional love for us. If we had no capacity to choose the wrong thing we would not be truly free. The patience God has with us is not weakness or indifference, it is mercy and the forbearance to give us the time to see, understand, turn back, the time to repent if we wish. We must not, like the servants, be too quick to separate ourselves from sinners. We are all partly both saints and sinners, it takes a lifetime to grow and none of us have reached full growth yet. The harvest comes at the end when God will separate the good from the bad, the wheat from the weeds.

The truth about our nature as human beings is sometimes uncomfortable but should also be liberating. The allotment in which the good seed battles against the weeds is not only out in the world but is in our makeup, in our minds and souls. We are each a mixed field. There is good seed, planted by God at our Baptism, watered by the sacraments, nourished by the Eucharist. There are weeds too, sown while we were distracted, or asleep, or turned away, sown by an enemy who never rests. The question is not whether we have weeds, we all do, it is, what do we do about them? We must use God's patience and allow Him the time He offers us, seeking to cooperate with His grace.

Jesus goes on to present two further parables. He speaks of the tiny mustard seed that grows into a tree, of yeast, that leavens the whole batch of dough. This is how grace works in a soul, quietly, patiently, from within it transforms everything it touches. This is what happens when we let God's grace work in us. Slowly, the wheat grows stronger, the dough rises. Slowly, we become people who can shelter others, like the mustard tree where the birds of the sky come to nest. Surely, we want to cooperate with God, to receive and use His grace, to grow, and produce a harvest. If we are to succeed we need to pray, to draw close to God, to understand what He wants from us. But do we know how to pray? When we try to pray our words can feel inadequate, confused, or empty. We are not always sure what to pray for. We ask for the wrong things, for what we want and not what we need. In the second reading Saint Paul gives us the answer. The Holy Spirit comes to us in our weakness, we might not know how to pray as we should, but He can intercede for us and express our needs in a way we cannot achieve. When we pray and cannot find the words, the Holy Spirit will pray in and with us. When our hearts are heavy and confused, the Holy Spirit will present to God the Father exactly what we need. We do not have to be eloquent or articulate, we only have to be present and let the Holy Spirit pray through our humility. Prayer is not about telling God about our needs, He knows that already. It is about lifting our hearts to Him open to receive what He already longs to give us. When we let the Holy Spirit take over our prayer, we stop trying to bend God to our will, and we start allowing God to bend us to His.

It should be our lifelong mission to discover and follow God's will for us. God wishes our salvation and that the good seed he has planted in us should not be lost, and even the weeds within us might, through His grace, be transformed into wheat before the harvest comes. In the Mass, through the Eucharist, the Body of Christ becomes the yeast that transforms us from within. It is the food, the yeast, the good seed, the grace that works deep within our being. It is not a reward for being perfect, it is a medicine for being human. God is patient with us, let us be patient with ourselves and each other, patient with the weeds in ourselves and in others. Let us trust in God, the patient Gardener. Give ourselves and others time, as God gives us time. When we pray and do not know the words to use, simply say, come Holy Spirit, pray in and for me. Let Him do the work, let Him present to the Father what we cannot express in our own words.

Today let us recognise with humility that we are made up of good and bad seed, that we need the Holy Spirit to intercede for us if we are to overcome the entanglement of the world. Let us allow God’s grace to work all through us as yeast works through dough, so that our small seed of faith may flourish into a great tree standing tall and providing shelter for others.

God Bless Brendan.