Homily for July
28th, 2020: 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 directs our attention to 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? Some words of God to Moses in the thirty-third chapter of Exodus
give us a clue to the answer. There we read: “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, and 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 not just joy but ecstasy,
for we shall see God face to face.
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