The 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Year C

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time: Year C

Peace be with you and greetings on this, our celebration of the 22^nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. Well,,, if you were listening to the readings today, you should have picked up that humility is a common theme throughout. Humility – not a real popular word in our modern culture, is it? It is important however, that we understand there is a distinction between spiritual or theological humility we read about in the Bible, as opposed to the word we commonly use today in 21^st Century America. Friends, spiritual humility is so necessary for salvation, Jesus takes every opportunity to stress its importance. Thomas Aquinas simply said, “humility is truth.” I’m sure everyone remembers hearing in all the Gospels how Jesus stresses the importance of being like children to enter heaven. In Matthew, he ties it to the word “humble” for clarification when he says, “Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Now why do you think Jesus uses the example of children to teach about humility and the kingdom of heaven?

Let me tell you a little story. Grandma and her grandson Johnny were looking at photos from a recent vacation the little boy had just taken with his parents to Yellowstone. As they leafed through the pictures grandma said, “my, how lovely. It’s as though God painted these beautiful scenes of nature just for you.” And Johnny responded, “yes it does grandma, but God had to paint with his left hand.” Now, naturally grandma was a little curious about Johnny’s left hand of God comment so she asked him to explain. “Well,” Johnny said, “in our religion class Ms. Trina told us Jesus sits on the right hand of God.” So, how do you think grandma reacted? Maybe with a chuckle and a hug? Friends, that’s called naive innocence, childlike humility.

Here is what St. Ambrose says about Jesus using children to explain humility, “Perhaps because usually they are without malice, nor are they deceptive, nor do they dare avenge themselves; they have no experience of lust, do not covet riches and are not ambitious. The Lord is not referring to childhood as such, but to the innocence which children have in their simplicity.” I would sum it all up with two adult human traits undeveloped in children. Adult traits that plague spiritual humility, pride and ego. Certainly, Jesus was trying to address pride in today’s Gospel reading about the Pharisee and his guests, and in case you haven’t looked at the list lately. Pride is number one on the list of seven deadly sins. In fact, many theologians feel we really don’t need the other six at all. St. Augustine simply said, “Sin is pride.” On the other list entitled virtues, humility stands at the top and humility is how we combat pride. Remember, theologically, humility is truth.

So, let’s start at the beginning. I personally feel one of the most misunderstood stories in the whole Bible is the fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. People get so wrapped up with things like talking serpents, fruit trees, and a vengeful old God who punished all of humanity for the sin of two people, they often miss the salvation message of the story. People have a hard time grasping a fact of Divinely inspired authors three or four thousand years ago, with no concept of modern science, psychology, or history, struggling to explain why people are so screwed up. Many read the story in a modern context, and they get angry. Bible readers often refuse to look at it in context of the whole of Scripture without realizing it is part of God’s love and God’s plan for salvation. Please, please, never forget this fact, the big book we call Bible has two primary constants. Ready? Here they are. First, God is love and second, we all have a free will.

Now, with those two constants in mind, let me tell the Genesis story in a modern context with me at the center. Once upon a time I walked humbly with God. Lovingly and faithfully, I knew his will. I was innocent. It was Paradise. Then the Tempter entered the scene. With perfumed tones and seemingly perfect logic, he offered what appeared to be the sweetest fruit: Pride! He cooed with a friendly voice, “I know what God told you, but how can, YOU be sure? What about YOU and what YOU want?” The truth that I knew, suddenly seemed shaken. Again, the Tempter whispered, “YOU can be like God.” I suddenly discovered my ego. It felt intoxicating. And so, when the fruit was offered, I bit. G.K. Chesterton called this “dislocated humility.” I became the center of my own universe. It’s now about what I want, what I expect, what I demand, what I deserve. Chesterton went on to say, “We’re all in the same boat and we’re all seasick.”

Sound far-fetched? Let me read a U.S. Supreme Court decision written in 1992 in the Planned Parenthood versus Casey Decision, “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one’s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, of the mystery of human life.” Wow! Hello Lucifer. The meaning of the universe, and the mystery of human life, it kind-a sounds like a God thing, doesn’t it?

OK, so what are theological humility and theological pride as we read the Bible. The two are so closely tied it’s hard to talk about one without the other but remember, humility is truth, so here is the truth. First and foremost, God is God, and I am not. I do not have the prerogative to be a god with my words or my actions. Second, everything I have is a gift from God, from my family to the socks on my feet, to my very next breath, to grace. It’s all a gift from God. Be grateful! And finally, I must admit, because of pride and ego, I have bitten the fruit. I know what is good and what is evil. God always wants me to choose good, and I have the Bible and the Church to help. Jesus gave me guidelines with 2 simple commandments, love God and love my neighbor.

OK. I’ve come up with some simple homework, but please remember before you start, the world’s noise always tries to drown God out. So, 1) Find a quiet place. 2) Pray and open yourself to God’s voice. 3) Discipline yourself spiritually with faith. 4) Be spiritually humble with gratitude. Remember Jesus’ words, “Unless you make yourself as a little child, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

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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.