Fr Kevin Kilgore

***

Gospel: Luke 10: 38-42

Jesus entered a village 
where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him.
She had a sister named Mary
who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. 
Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said,
“Lord, do you not care
that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? 
Tell her to help me.” 
The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. 
There is need of only one thing. 
Mary has chosen the better part
and it will not be taken from her.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

Imagine the scene in today’s Gospel. Perhaps we’ve experienced something similar before.

I imagine Martha’s hair up in a bun, beads of sweat forming on her forehead, her waist wrapped in an apron, her joints inflamed from standing too long, and flour covering her hands and the floor. Meanwhile, water is boiling – and so is she. 

Storming into the living room, Martha accuses Jesus of not caring about her burdens while she blames her sister for being the cause of her anxiety. Have we ever done that, blamed God for our suffering?

Jesus, the divine physician, diagnoses the root cause of Martha’s stress. “You are worried and anxious about many things,” he says. The root of the verb, “worry,” means, “to strangle; to seize by the throat; to tear.” 

***

At least that day, Martha took her work and seized it by the throat, squeezing all of the grace out of it.

In her kitchen, all she saw a giant mess. Water boiling over; vegetables half cut; flour everywhere; and a whole lot of “stuff” to get done with a lazy, absentee sister.

Instead, she could’ve imagined:

The Lord’s voice humming beneath that boiling water; his empty stomach soon to be filled; his gratitude for a hot meal, a labor of Martha’s love; even Mary’s heart being filled with wisdom as she learned from Jesus.

The entire scene was sacred.

Her work was sacred. Their home was sacred. Most importantly, their guest was sacred. But Martha was too focused on “what” she was doing, as opposed to “why” she was doing it, ruining a beautiful meal in the process.

***

How often are we like Martha? We forget to see the deeper dimensions of reality, the God within our homes and our selves, to the point that – in the words of TS Eliot – “We had the experience, but missed the meaning.”

May everything we do today be a labor of love, making our yoke easy and our burdens light.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Eater (2) Christ Inside the House of Martha and Mary, Velazquez (3) A Heart for God, WordPress

***

Gospel: Matthew 13: 46-53

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.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

****

Perhaps three of the most profound questions posed by humanity are: Why does love exist? Why does evil exist? And why do they intermingle so intimately in this world?

While Jesus does not answer any of these questions thoroughly, he does address the co-existence of good and evil in today’s parable of the weeds and wheat.

***

He begins by saying, “A sower went out to sow,” which implies there was One with good intentions who existed first. This sower proceeded to scatter seed along fertile ground, implying it’s good ground.

So, whether we apply this parable to the world, to the Church, or to ourselves individually, the foundation is good. Only after seeds have been scattered and the wheat begins cropping up does the Evil One enter and begin sowing weeds. 

Mysteriously, the weeds and wheat intermingle for a time, creating this tension we all experience in the world – even within ourselves.

As Saint Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans, “What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but what I hate” (Romans 7:15). Paul admitted that his own soul was a combination of weeds and wheat, sin and grace.

He awaited the redemption of his body in the resurrection, when God would put a definitive end to evil, even that which Paul was responsible for sowing himself.

***

This might lead us to a better understanding of God’s attitude towards the intermingling of love and evil in this world. As Pope John XXIII once said regarding his governance of the Church, “I am aware of everything. I tolerate much. I change a few things.”

Similarly, God is aware of everything, mysteriously tolerating it all for a time. But there will be a definitive judgment, an eternal separation between good and evil.

***

So, what does this mean for us?

We could learn from what seems to be God’s approach, doing everything we can to rid this world of unnecessary suffering, poverty, and evil while respecting human freedom, the swift passage of time, and keeping the final judgment in mind.

For whatever we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to Jesus. 

It does not go unnoticed; rather, it will make all the difference in the end.

***

***

Image credits: (1) Life, Hope, and Truth (2) My Pastoral Ponderings (3) Bloomerang Fundraising

***

Gospel: Matthew 13:31-35

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“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.’”

He  spoke to them another parable.
“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.”

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables, 
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation 
of the world.

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

One of the most difficult things about having faith in God is talking about it. When someone without faith asks us, “Why do you believe?” Often we are left tongue-tied, as if no answer is sufficient.

Faith is deeply personal, residing in the most secretive part of ourselves, where we ponder, hope, question, and dream. It can feel like a place beyond reason – to the point that, often our most honest answer boils down to something like:

“You just have to experience it.”

***

I wonder if Jesus felt the same thing when trying to talk about God. How could he distill the great mysteries of the universe into language that people could understand? 

Ultimately, he turned to parables. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed; a pinch of yeast; a treasure buried in a field; a lost coin.

Each parable points to an eternal truth, bridging the gap between the mind of God and the mind of man.

***

In the case of today’s Gospel, neither the mustard seed nor the pinch of yeast is worth much on its own.

But when the seed works in tandem with the soil, it becomes the largest of bushes. Or when the yeast is mixed with flour, it turns to a large loaf of bread – enough to feed a family, perhaps even a village.

So, what is it that Jesus is saying to us?

***

God desires to transform our world from a dark and gloomy waste into an extension of his kingdom. But, like a seed in soil, or yeast mixed with wheat, we must work in tandem with grace. 

When working together, we can transform every corner of our world into what it was created to be – a place where God is found – just beneath the surface, hidden in you and me.

***

***

Image credits: (1) First Methodist McKinney (2) Catholic Preaching (3) QuoteFancy