Homily for
July 28th, 2015: Matt. 13:36-43.
“The righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father,”
Jesus tells us at the end of his explanation of his parable of the weeds among
the wheat. That story is about the greatest difficulty for religious belief:
the so-called “Problem of Evil.” How is it possible that, in a world created
and ruled by a good and loving God, there is so much evil, injustice, and
suffering? The weeds sown among the wheat are, Jesus explains, “the children of
the Evil One, and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.”
Why does God tolerate evil in the good
world he has created? God’s words to Moses in our first reading give us the
answer: because “the Lord is a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and
rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand
generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin.” But not forever.
Today’s gospel reading proclaims the good news that the power of evil is
temporary. There will come a time when justice and goodness will triumph. “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 [and] throw them into the fiery
furnace …”
When that happens, Jesus says, “the
righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.” We became
citizens of that kingdom at baptism. This life, with all its trials and
suffering, and ending with death, is a preparation for a life without end,
without suffering; where the deepest desires of our hearts, never fully
satisfied in this life, will find fulfillment beyond our imagining; where we
shall experience ecstasy, for we
shall see God face to face.
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