Why do onlookers see us as a ritualistic, religious folk and seem to avoid us at all cost? If you were on the outside looking in what would you see?
Would you see a welcoming place with doors wide open and people eager to greet and welcome you? Are parishioners happily engaged in conversations outside of Mass, or when they send their kids for Catechism? Do friends gather in their homes to praise, worship, testify and share the Gospel with one another or at the very least do they do this by zoom? Are those serving the Church alive with joy in their hearts and bearing fruit for the Lord? Are they eager to attend meetings where the Lord is alive in their hearts and present? Are they excited about planning and executing events through the guidance of the Holy Spirit to bring everyone closer to the Lord our God? Are many flocking to the Church to be healed and set free from sin through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?
If not then is the Lord truly with us? We may not be as bad as those mentioned in today’s first reading but are we any better? Yes we are all sinners but how many of us are striving to be saints as we are called to be?
In Your mercy Lord let change begin with me. Fill me with Your grace and Holy Spirit and let me glorify You by my life. Amen
First reading
Jeremiah 7:1-11 ·
Reform your behaviour and I will stay here with you, says the Lord
The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord:
‘Go and stand at the gate of the Temple of the Lord and there proclaim this message. Say, “Listen to the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who come in by these gates to worship the Lord. The Lord Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will stay with you here in this place. Put no trust in delusive words like these: This is the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord! But if you do amend your behaviour and your actions, if you treat each other fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow (if you do not shed innocent blood in this place), and if you do not follow alien gods, to your own ruin, then here in this place I will stay with you, in the land that long ago I gave to your fathers for ever. Yet here you are, trusting in delusive words, to no purpose! Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow alien gods that you do not know? – and then come presenting yourselves in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe – safe to go on committing all these abominations! Do you take this Temple that bears my name for a robbers’ den? I, at any rate, am not blind – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Gospel
Matthew 13:24-30
Let them both grow till the harvest
Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’
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