February 12,2023 Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Paul T. Keil , February 12, 2023

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Peace be with you on this, our celebration of the Mass for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time. You know, when Father Tim and I agreed a while back that I would have the privilege to give the homily this weekend I said, “great, that’s just a couple of days before Valentine’s Day!” I was excited thinking it would be just wonderful to pull words of love out of the readings and wrap them into a beautiful tender, maybe even romantic, homily. Well – that was before I read this weekend’s Gospel, however. So, I opened the Lectionary and read, “Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement,” or “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart,” or here’s a real romantic verse, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” For today of all days, really Lord? Now a quick lesson here ladies. Before you poke your guy in the ribs when he shows too much interest in that Victoria’s Secret ad. I would remind everyone how to read the Bible in context of a 2000-year-old culture. Words like “brother” and “woman”, in the context we just heard today, should be read as gender neutral. Consequently, Jesus’ prohibitions against anger, judgementalism, and lust apply to everyone.

Regardless, when I read this Gospel for today, thinking about pink hearts, red roses, chocolates, and flowers, I sat down quietly and said to myself, “Really Lord, for Valentine’s Day weekend, we’ve got this particular reading from Matthew. Where’s the message of love?” The good news is, whenever I read really difficult or even kind-a scary scripture passages like these, I can find comfort with a simple phrase I like to use; “It’s good to be Catholic.” I don’t often quote the Catechism during homilies but today is very appropriate, especially when we have trouble finding God’s love in a passage. Paragraph 112 in the Catechism is the first of three criteria Vatican II gave us for “interpreting Scripture in accordance with the Spirit who inspired it.” It says this; “Be especially attentive to the content and unity of the whole Scripture.”

The content and unity of the whole of Scripture. What exactly does that mean anyway? One of my favorite Scripture Scholars, Margaret Nutting-Ralph, went so far as to say this in one of her books; “If you are interpreting anything in the Bible to say God does not love you, you are misinterpreting the Bible.” Wow! Now that’s a pretty broad statement Margaret. I mean after all, I’ve read some pretty ugly stuff in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, that really doesn’t sound at all loving. In her book however, she goes to great lengths to show how some of the most negative sounding scripture passages are generally misinterpreted by many modern readers, primarily because of cultural and contextual issues encountered when trying to read ancient Hebrew or Greek texts translated into English.

Ultimately however, all of us can lean on paragraph 112 in the Catechism when we become frustrated by Scripture even if we’re not scholars. Always remember what I’ve said over and over, the Bible is not modern schoolbook type history, although some Christians try to use it that way. It is a book of faith given to us for our salvation. It is a journey of God’s unlimited love in an intimate and maturing relationship with humanity and it spans over 2000 years of written revelation contained in 73 separate books. And this Revelation was not fully revealed until the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So, when we look for this unity of the whole of Scripture where does it finally take us? My friends, it always leads to love. Another Scripture Scholar, Steven Ray, describes it this way; “Do you ever feel lonely, unloved, unforgiven, or unworthy? Take a look at the crucifix. You are loved. Jesus would have done that if you were the only person on earth, because he loves YOU enough to make the supreme sacrifice.”

Today we heard part of Matthew 5. Chapters 5, 6, and 7 in Matthew’s Gospel all comprise Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the ideals laid down in his discourse on the mountain have been a constant point of discussion within the Church. Is Jesus demanding that we all meet these ideals without compromise – or we’ll be liable to fiery Gehenna? I mean, if you’re reading it literally, that’s what it says, right? Gosh, I wonder, how many one-eyed Christians would be walking around? Just listen to the very last verse of Chapter 5 if you really want to worry; “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Yikes Lord! You want Godly perfection from me? I’ll try Lord God, but you know I am weak, and I am a sinner.

Friends, you’ve heard me say this before and you may be tired of hearing it, but one of the reasons I love our Catholic Church is because here we openly display the image of the crucified Jesus, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, God incarnate. And I firmly believe there is absolutely no physical image that can better define God’s eternal love for me and for you, than Jesus crucified. The image of the crucified Jesus hangs in the vestibule before you enter the Church. It is the image we process into Church with during Mass, it appears there, on the 12 ^th Station of the Cross, and it hangs above our Altar.

Now, like every good Christian, I enthusiastically rejoice in the Resurrected Jesus and the image above the main doors to our Parish Hall depicts Jesus risen. The Resurrection defines Jesus’ Divinity. And without the Resurrection the Crucifixion would have simply been another Roman execution in a backwater province of their empire, but – if the Resurrection defines Jesus’ divinity surely the Crucifixion defines Jesus’ love. So, remember, if you’re ever tempted to say, “no one loves me.” Simply look at the Crucifix. For homework, go meditate on a crucifix for a bit and remember, God did that for you out of love. And,,, simply stated my friends, that’s my message of love for this weekend before Valentine’s Day.

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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time July 19, 2026

By Gail Johnson • September 2, 2026

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.