28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, 10-13-19, Year C

Peace be with you on this our celebration of the Mass for the 28 ^th Sunday in Ordinary time. So, today is all about saying thank you to God right – or is there more? The Gospel reading itself almost sounds like a parable Jesus might use for teaching, doesn’t it? I mean wow, nine of the ten lepers cured by Jesus of the most dreaded disease known don’t even come back and say “thank you.” How strange is that? And oh, by the way, the one and only clean leper that does come back glorifying God and giving thanks, just happens to be one of those despicable Samaritans. Well, maybe we do have another lesson to contemplate here besides what appears to be the obvious one of thanking God for a miracle? I mean Jesus, the Jewish teacher, isn’t even supposed to talk to a Samaritan let alone cure his illnesses.

Then in the first reading from the 2 ^nd Book of Kings, we have another hated outsider being cured of leprosy. It’s not completely obvious unless you read the whole scene from 2 ^nd Kings Chapter 5 but this Naaman guy, we just heard about, is actually a Syrian General and so, another non-Jew and consequently, another outsider. In the story his servant, who just happens to be a slave captured from Israel, convinces him to go see the Prophet Elisha to cure his leprosy. Again, the message here is not his miraculous cure but his confession of faith when he says; “I will no longer offer holocaust or sacrifice to any other god except the Lord.” Ultimately, he takes home two mule loads of Israel’s dirt so he can worship Israel’s God on Israel’s home soil. Naaman’s profession of faith, coupled with the Gospel, when we hear Jesus telling the unnamed Samaritan, also cured of leprosy; “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you” might be an indication there is a message other than two stories of miraculous cures.

You see, both are also stories of salvation and faith of people who are outsiders or on the fringe. The Samaritan would be considered a complete outcast, absolutely hopeless, and a total non-person in the 1 ^st Century Jewish society. Do you think there could be something to contemplate, like the foreign alien or repulsive stranger we want to ignore; the forgotten man or woman, the disgusting one, or the desperate one? While meditating on these scriptures and this topic, remember this also, some part deep within ourselves may be that outsider or rejected outcast as well. So, whether the outcast is actually another individual who we habitually reject and turn our backs on or someone deep within ourselves, might I suggest we try to develop some qualities to help us welcome the outcast exactly as Jesus taught.

The first quality, oddly enough, is gratitude. A grateful person is usually the one who does not take anything for granted. Such people have an eye to see what is being done for them. They recognize the long preparations before they sit down to eat! The careful planning before a family reunion or a parish picnic makes them appreciate the unnamed workers behind the scenes. These grateful people discover what most of us overlook and then, they express their joy and appreciation.

Grateful people are usually optimistic people also. They can anticipate the good which others are capable of doing. All ten of the lepers saw in Jesus the kindly person capable and willing to heal their disease. Similarly, some people have the wonderful insight to see and encourage great potential in others. They can turn the useless outcast into a “miracle worker.” They thus make it possible for others to find themselves. This kind of optimism, perhaps, is what Jesus meant by faith, faith in others as gifted by God. Jesus addressed the Samaritan; “Stand up and go, your faith has saved you.”

By optimism then, we are disposed to recognize talents and qualities in others, which many have been overlooking when categorizing them as “outsiders.” Moreover, with all the more enthusiasm we honor this hidden part of them when we attribute the gift to God’s generosity. The Samaritan “came back praising God.” Naaman declared that his cure shows “there is no God in all the earth, except in Israel.” Such praise of God not only enhances the hidden gift in the other person, but it also gives a note of urgency to act upon it.

A good memory is also important to recognize the outsider and to allow this hidden aspect of ourselves or of others to reach full potential. Memory is the ability to draw upon the best of one’s own life and one’s own tradition. Memory says: look what wonderful things you have already done; this proves you can still do more, so don’t give up. Memory is at the heart of biblical religion as we recall God’s great redemptive acts and hear the greatest of all repeated during the Mass as the Priest says; “do this in remembrance of me.”

Finally, as I when I started today, we are often afraid to identify and face the stranger for fear of the demands upon us. At the very least the outsider will upset our schedule because often this castoff will require our attention. In some real way it imprisons us. It may even put upon us some of the outcast’s shame and humiliation. At the time of Jesus there was a real fear of becoming contaminated by the leper and made impure by the foreigner but ultimately,,, doesn’t Jesus’ Gospel message teach the exact opposite?

Our Christ like actions on earth enable the stranger and outcast to find themselves, their true self, and their hidden potential. What was hidden is found for eternal glory. Paul also infers the magnificent possibility that we who preach and live the gospel will rediscover that same gospel when; by gratitude, by faith, and by remembrance we bring to light God’s wonderful gifts hidden within ourselves and within others.

So, today’s readings mean much more than simply saying thank you to God for the many gifts we’re given. The deeper message here is one of recognizing, accepting, and maybe even embracing the outcast, whether that outcast is standing on the street corner or hidden in our own hearts. Then to accept that outcast or offer that embrace God has given each and every one of us unique human qualities we should continue to develop and nourish, they are; gratitude, optimism, remembrance, and most of all courage to live the gospel in faith.

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Paul T. Keil, 18-19 July 2026 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Season A Peace be with you and welcome to our celebration of the Mass for the 16 th Sunday in Ordinary Time. OK, some of you may remember I’ve said before, in Matthew’s Gospel, Chapters 5, 6, and 7 comprise the whole Sermon on the Mount, but did you know Chapter 13, where we are today, is often called the Sermon of the Parables. In this single chapter Matthew strings together seven separate parables from Jesus. Today we just heard numbers two, three, and four. Last weekend we heard the first one with the Parable of the Sower and what happens to the seeds scattered in different places. Next weekend you’ll hear the final three parables from Chapter 13 so, be sure to come back. So, what is Jesus saying in these readings. Last week we heard the parable about seeds as an allegory for Jesus’s words falling on a path and being eaten by birds, falling on rocky ground and withering with no roots, falling into thorns and being choked by life’s anxieties, and falling on fertile soil to bear fruit. Today we have Jesus giving us another parable about planting seeds and again, just like last week, Jesus’ disciples ask him to explain the parable. And since He stops to explain both parables about planting, he just might be trying to emphasize something important here for his disciples, and for us. One thing is clear in these parables however, God’s Kingdom will always coexist in this physical world with forces opposing it, like the wheat and the weeds growing together. Now many religious people struggle with this condition. Some see it as predestination. A weed in the wheat field or a seed in the rocks must represent people predestined to go to hell. That’s what it literally says, right? Still others ask in frustration; this is God we’re talking about, why does God’s Kingdom have to struggle with opposing forces at all? Why doesn’t God just get rid of the evil? Well, our old friend, St Thomas Aquinas wrote quite a bit about good and evil coexisting in our fallen world. He said sometimes the two are so tightly interwoven that you couldn’t have certain types of good without certain types of evil. For example, he said simply, “there would be no virtue of the martyr without the cruelty of the tyrant.” Friends, God delights in our freedom, our intelligence, and our cooperation when we freely make the decision to accept God’s love. Without free will we cannot choose to love. Jesus’ explanation of the wheat and weed parable certainly helps when he says; “The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels” and in the next verse he says; “The Son of Man will send his angels.” There is a very important take-away here every single Christian should remember. Eternal judgment belongs to God alone, not to anyone else – period. This is a consistent message Jesus gives us in all four Gospels but unfortunately, there are those who sometimes forget this simple divine fact about humanity’s relationship with the unlimited creator of the universe. We may perceive an individual as being bad or even intrinsically evil but judgment for their immortal souls belongs exclusively to God. I always like an old adage that goes like this, “if I ever get to heaven, I may be surprised by who I see there, and they may be even more surprised to see me.” I’ll admit, over the years for a long time, as I’ve meditated on this parable about weeds and wheat or last week’s parable about seeds, especially the ones falling into thorns choked by worldly anxiety, there was something always bothering me. You see, if we’re not careful both parables can make life, heaven, and hell sound kind of random or worse yet, they can make God’s love sound like it is exclusively reserved for preselected people. I know now however, there is nothing further from the truth. If you’ve lived life for a while and think back to times when you were say maybe,,, struggling in school, or first dating, or trying to make ends meet while raising a family, or competing for promotions at work, or trying to buy that first house, you realize there may have been times when your life wasn’t very spiritually fruitful. In fact, I now realize there were times in my own past when thoughts of God, salvation, or prayer were nowhere in my daily routine. I even wonder; was there a period in my life when I was one of those weeds or a seed in the thorns? Thankfully, with reflection on the whole of Scripture, guidance from the Church, and maybe some help from the Holy Spirit I realize now these parables are not “either / or” propositions. God doesn’t intentionally create some people as weeds and some people as wheat nor does God throw souls into the wind to randomly fall in the thorns, or on stony ground, or in fertile soil. If you’re not careful, you can come to those conclusions, however. You can read the Bible too narrowly and pick out verses here and there that help support your personal image of what you want God to be. Those tend to be the same people who like to do God’s judgment work for him. Here’s the thing; some of us here today may have actually spent some time as those ugly weeds but at some point, with God’s help, we decided to change and now we’re wheat growing in that good old fertile soil. My sisters and brothers, sin must never be viewed as a permanent state. Like we heard from the Book of Wisdom today, “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.” This is the greatest gift of our Christian faith; God loves us all so much, even great sinners, God is always ready to forgive. So, here’s a challenge and homework for us all today. Most of us know people out there from all age groups, but especially some of our youth, who may be temporarily living life like the weeds in our parable today or maybe tangled in those thorns of life’s tribulations. First and foremost, we must be confident, sin is not a permanent state of life, second, we don’t judge, third, pray for them no matter how nasty they may seem. And finally, if we’re really, really brave, we offer them a hand to pull them up and out of the weeds, rocks, or thorns into God’s fertile soil.