16th Sunday Ordinary Time July 19, 2026

Readings: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19, Romans 8:26-27, Matthew 13:24-43

The first reading is simply telling us that God is all-powerful but is gentle and always wants to give us time for repentance. We could perhaps even say that God invites us to change our ways of living so that every aspect of our life reflects His love and compassion. Repentance for us means that we are willing to change our ways of living and even to see that many of our ways of living are not really what God is asking of us. Most of us want to follow God. Most of us come to Church because we believe in Christ and accept His Gospel. On the other hand, it is not easy for us to want to give up totally everything that stands in the way of a strong and vibrant relationship with God.

The Gospel reflects this reality that we live every day. We find ourselves with a lot of good within us, but also some weedy parts of our lives. The Gospel even sounds like we should not get too concerned about the weeds! Rather, we should cultivate the good seed, that which is really good within us. This seems to be a fairly consistent teaching in our spiritual tradition. We must be careful not to think that we should pay no attention to evil at all, because that is not what the Gospel is telling us. Rather, we need to make sure that our daily attention is on doing good. One of the Psalms tells us: Turn away from evil and do good.

Following Christ is not just about avoiding evil. It is much more about learning how to love the good and to do the good and to rejoice in doing good. Following Christ is about want to know Christ personally and to rejoice in this relationship and to live from this relationship. Perhaps we should think of the second reading! It is the Spirit of Jesus that will intercede for us and show us the way. It is the Spirit that will come to the aid of our weakness, showing us how to pray and how to live with joy and delight in the Lord.

This Sunday we can renew our desire to turn away from all that may be evil within us, to turn away from all that is evil outside of us and still attracts us—and we can ask the Spirit to draw us with love and compassion so that we want to live the fullness of divine life in every aspect of our lives. Let us give thanks to God.