GOD`S PATIENCE, MERCY, AND GRACE AMIDST EVIL INCLINATIONS
Our Sunday reflection of this week invites us to meditate on God`s patience, mercy, and grace upon us amidst our evil tendencies and inclinations. The problem of evil in the “best” world created by a powerful, loving, knowing, and omnipotent God is very unfathomable to the human mind and an enigma to human existence. Is God responsible for evil in the world? Shouldn´t He have prevented it, if He is all-powerful, all-presence, and all-knowing?
How should the problem of evil be handled by us: through denial, rejection, or doubt of the existence and presence of an all-powerful, all-loving, all-knowing, and all-presence God? These are existential questions difficult for the modern mind to comprehend. Hence, we need the wisdom of God to be able to see goodness and strive toward it in a world full of ugly evils.
OUR THEMES
The readings of this Sunday invite us to ask for the wisdom from above to understand the problem of evil that perturbs all of us. Evil in us, in others, and in the world are consequences of our personal or collective actions or choices. God always respects our free will, freedom, decision, and choice to be either good or bad.
Hence, we are challenged by the parables of the mustard seed and yeast that remind us through our personal or collective effort to be good in our own little or insignificant corners of life. Therefore, with wisdom, we can understand the patience, mercy, and grace of God upon us to repent and abandon evil.
FIRST READING: WISDOM 12:13, 16-19,
The author of the Book of Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, amidst many perturbing questions of life, assures us that because God is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-presence, and all-loving, he governs the world with patience, allowing time for repentance of evil-doers. Evil, then, is never and will never be an attribute of God.
Indeed, it is through wisdom, power, authority, and justice that God manifests his Mercy, forgiveness, and restoration of loss of glory and innocence, and not condemnation or punishment.
The first reading from the Book of Wisdom shows us a merciful and patient God, rather than the disciplining and punishing God presented in the Book of Genesis.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 8:26-27
St. Paul in Romans 8:26-27, gives us one of the most profound and concrete answers to the problem of evil and our struggles with prayers amidst disappointments, pains, and the seeming absence of God in our lives, conditions, or situations. The Holy Spirit prays for us and with us beyond expressive words because He knows the depth of God.
With the Holy Spirit, this is Pauline theology of grace and salvation, the Christian life and its spirituality is an effortless life and living. This is because the Spirit does all the work and leads us to freedom and sonship with Christ. The Holy Spirit knows and understands the depth of God´s Mystery.
The second reading, taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans, reminds us that the Spirit of God constantly empowers us in our prayers and in our weaknesses. So, we should be patient with ourselves and with others.
THE GOSPEL: MATTHEW 13:24- 43
Jesus’ parables in the Gospel text of the day are very illuminating to our Christian life and living: first, the freedom and justice of God is demonstrated in his infinite mercy and patience for all to come repentance. Mt. 13:24-30. Secondly, the Kingdom of heaven is through the small and insignificant things of life made great through the power of God. Mt. 13:31-32. Thirdly, the Kingdom of heaven is attainable through the small and insignificant things of life which God in his grace multiplies. Mt. 13:33-34
THE PATIENCE OF GOD
In the Gospel parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus presents a wise and patient God who allows the good and the evil to coexist in the world until the harvest, and blesses the evil ones for the little good they may have done, so that they may come to conversion before their time ends: “Let the wheat and the weeds [darnel] grow together till the harvest time.”
In other words, God is “delaying” the end of the world for repentant sinners, giving them more time, and offering them the graces of strength and goodwill so that they may get reconciled with Him. God calmly recognizes that there is evil in the world, but He sees that evil is no excuse for good people not to do good with the power of God at their disposal.
Through the parable of the wheat and the weeds in today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to be patient with those who seem to us to fail to meet the high ethical standard expected of a Christian.
In the Gospel of Matthew 13:24- 43, Jesus uses a lot of parables to teach and communicate the deepest truth of God, life, and the world to us namely:
THE DEEPEST TRUTH OF GOD
1. God is all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-presence at every given moment with no alteration or shady of evil.
2. God is not absolutely responsible for evil, wickedness, or pains in our lives, in others, or in the world.
3. The act of doing evil by sowing weeds in someone´s field is not imaginative. It is our real-life experience when hatred, jealousy, envy, strife, and wickedness drive a person’s heart to defame another´s character or personality, lie, abuse, deny justice, steal, covert properties, etc.
4. It teaches us that there is always a hostile power in us, in others, and in the world, seeking and waiting to destroy the seed of goodness and grace.
5. It teaches us how hard it is to distinguish between those who are in the Kingdom and those who are not. A man may appear to be good and may be bad, and a man may appear to be bad and may yet be good. We are much too quick to classify people and label them good or bad based on our intuitions and perceptions without knowing all the facts about them.
6. The presence of evil and wickedness is a consequence of our personal or collective free will, freedom, or choice. There is divine justice for every thought, word, and action whether good or bad.
7. With God, there is only patience, mercy, and grace to repent of all evil doings or inclinations. There is no place to control evil with evil. Hence, the age-long tactics of men: inquisitions, ex-communications, or anathemas in the name of curbing evil in us, the Church, or the world is outdated. God does not need us to do his bidding or presume his intention but to give time, grace, patience, and mercy to all.
8. However, our personal or collective efforts or actions of goodness no matter how small or insignificant they are can and will make a big difference in the presence of evil and wickedness to transform the world into a better place for all.
9. A humanized and fraternized small effort for God´s project among us is a better propagative way of God´s reigning among us than powerful, authoritative, imposed, or feared institutions or personalities that act with evils in the name of God´s will or intentions.
10. The concrete human efforts that lead to goodness, change, reformation, transformation or revolution begin with one person, in small and insignificant things or ways before involving many or becoming big.
11. fundamentally, this parable of wheat and weeds teaches us not to be so quick with our judgments. It teaches us that judgment does come in the end. It also teaches us that the only person with the right to judge is God. It is God alone who can discern the good and the bad; it is God alone who sees all of a man and his life. It is God alone who can judge.
THE TRANSFORMING POWER OF CHRIST
It is a fact of history that the greatest things must always begin with the smallest beginnings. It is also a fact that the greatest reformations and transformations begin always with one person. This is the case with Christianity which revolutionize the entire world in every age. It is the transforming power of Christ:
Today, we witness this transforming power of Christ in the Church and Christians.
1. The transformation of Christianity begins in the individual life, for through Christ the victim of temptation can become the victor over it.
2. There are four great social directions in which Christianity transformed life.
i. Christianity transformed life for women. One demonstrable historical truth is that Christianity transformed life for women. Before Christianity in many cultures and traditions women were seen as slaves and nonentities.
ii. Christianity transformed life for the weak and the ill. Christianity was the first faith to be interested in the broken things of life such as diseases etc.
iii. Christianity transformed life for the aged. Like the weak, the aged were a nuisance. Christianity was the first faith to regard men as persons and not instruments capable of doing so much work.
iv. Christianity transformed life for the child. In modem civilization life is almost butt round the child; in ancient civilization, the child had a very good chance of dying before it had begun to live.
In a nutshell, we are invited not only to be bearers of your Kingdom in the little and insignificant things of our lives but also to create an awareness of God’s love for others and reflect that love for others in our own lives through mercy and forgiveness. Above all, we need the assistance of the Holy Spirit to help us over the hard, difficult, and confusing times of our lives when we are speechless on what to say in prayer or void of what to express in prayer.
God is so merciful that He allows evil to exist in order that what is good may grow. He allows evil to exist because He can turn it into good. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, God can change even the ugliest thorn into a blossom of Faith. In God’s field, we have two responsibilities: to grow in grace as we do His will and to share His Word and love with others.
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, You are the God of mercy and compassion, rich in mercy, generous in forgiving, and reluctance in punishment, You do not repay or punish us according to our sins or wrong-doings. Teach us to know, appreciate and live within, mercy, and wisdom in order to practice goodness and limit evil in us and in the world. Amen.
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