20260719 THE PROCESS OF GROWTH IN THE COMMUNITY
19 July 2026, Sunday, 16th Week in Ordinary Time
First reading |
Wisdom 12:13,16-19 |
You will grant repentance after sin
There is no god, other than you, who cares for every thing,
to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly.
Your justice has its source in strength,
your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.
You show your strength when your sovereign power is questioned
and you expose the insolence of those who know it;
but, disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement,
you govern us with great lenience,
for you have only to will, and your power is there.
By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people
how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men,
and you have given your sons the good hope
that after sin you will grant repentance.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 85(86):5-6,9-10,15-16 |
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving,
full of love to all who call.
Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer
and attend to the sound of my voice.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
All the nations shall come to adore you
and glorify your name, O Lord:
for you are great and do marvellous deeds,
you who alone are God.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
But you, God of mercy and compassion,
slow to anger, O Lord,
abounding in love and truth,
turn and take pity on me.
O Lord, you are good and forgiving.
Second reading | Romans 8:26-27 |
The Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words
The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Ep1:17,18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ
enlighten the eyes of our mind,
so that we can see what hope his call holds for us.
Alleluia!
Gospel |
Matthew 13:24-43 |
Let them both grow till the harvest
Jesus put another parable before the crowds: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s servants went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” “Some enemy has done this” he answered. And the servants said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”’
He put another parable before them: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.’
He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.’
In all this Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables; indeed, he would never speak to them except in parables. This was to fulfil the prophecy:
I will speak to you in parables
and expound things hidden since the foundation of the world.
Then, leaving the crowds, he went to the house; and his disciples came to him and said, ‘Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.’ He said in reply, ‘The sower of the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world; the good seed is the subjects of the kingdom; the darnel, the subjects of the evil one; the enemy who sowed them, the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; the reapers are the angels. Well then, just as the darnel is gathered up and burnt in the fire, so it will be at the end of time. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that provoke offences and all who do evil, and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth. Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Listen, anyone who has ears!’
THE PROCESS OF GROWTH IN THE COMMUNITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [WIS 12:13,16-19, ROM 8:26-27, MT 13:24-43 OR MT 13:24-30]
Preceding the Parable of the Wheat and the Darnel is the Parable of the Sower. This earlier parable explains why the proclamation of the Good News bears different fruits in the hearts of its hearers. The same seed — the Word of God — is sown, but as the Parable of the Sower reminds us, the outcome depends heavily on the soil, which represents the receptivity of the audience. However, this is not just a matter of our personal response; it also depends on divine grace, where the seed falls, and our inherent capacity to receive the Word.
It is within this context of personal growth that we are invited to reflect on our growth as a community. People often mistakenly think the Christian community is an ideal utopia where everyone perfectly loves and cares for one another. This ideal is beautifully described in the Acts of the Apostles, which highlights how the early Christians “who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their possessions and goods and distribute the proceeds to all, as any had need. Day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, they broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people” (Acts 2:44-47; 4:32). Yet, this perfect harmony did not last long. Selfishness and dishonesty quickly crept in, as seen in the story of Ananias, who secretly kept back some of the proceeds from his property sale (cf. Acts 5:1-5).
Clearly, in any Christian community, while some members are exceptionally generous, caring, patient, and encouraging, others remain spiritually weak and attached to the world. We are all at different stages of spiritual growth and possess various moral weaknesses shaped by our individual upbringing. Not all of us receive the Word of God the same way, nor do we all fully grasp its depth and richness. Therefore, we must remain cognisant that we are all operating at different levels of spiritual maturity. This maturity is not determined by the number of years we have spent in the faith, but by the depth of our response to His Word — which is heavily influenced by our environment, family, friends, and life responsibilities.
A mature Christian is not someone who lives in a paradisaical illusion where everyone is loving, and selfishness and injustice do not exist. Rather, a mature Christian is someone who lives realistically in a flawed community, striving alongside others to live according to the Gospel by the grace of God. This is the core lesson of the Parable of the Darnel and the Wheat. In the Kingdom of Heaven, God offers us His Word through Christ, but the enemy comes to sow disorder. Consequently, goodness and evil coexist within every one of us and within our communities, becoming more obvious as we allow them to grow. Yet, God intentionally allows both good and evil to exist side-by-side for a time. As the master tells his servants regarding the weeds: “You might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.”
Growth in holiness does not exist in a vacuum. We can never truly know if we are holy or spiritually mature until we are tested. Even Jesus, after spending forty days fasting in the desert, was tempted at the end of His retreat. Through this experience, Jesus proved that His time in prayer with the Father had made Him strong enough to resist the Evil One. He was judicious in uncovering the hidden motives behind the Devil’s suggestions to turn stones into bread, test the Father by jumping from the temple pinnacle, or bow down in worship. Similarly, it is through life’s trials, challenges, and difficulties that we discover if we have truly grown in Christian maturity. Without being tested by suffering and worldly temptation, we cannot claim true spiritual growth.
For those who falter while trying to live out the Gospel, there is no need to fall into despair or self-condemnation. The first reading assures us that God is always merciful and ready to forgive. The greatness of God lies not merely in His sovereign power, but in the fact that His omnipotence is always tempered by mercy. As the Book of Wisdom says: “There is no god, other than you, who cares for everything, to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly. Your justice has its source in strength; your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all. You show your strength when your sovereign power is questioned, you govern us with great lenience.” In the Responsorial Psalm, the psalmist sings praises, saying: “O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of love to all who call. Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my voice. But you, God of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, O Lord, abounding in love and truth, turn and take pity on me.”
God deeply understands human weakness. In Christ Jesus, who assumed our humanity, He knows intimately what it means to be tempted, to suffer injustice, and to bear the consequences of sin. As St. Paul wrote: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor 5:21). For this reason, the author of Hebrews encourages us: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb 4:15-16).
The Lord knows that as long as we try our best with the grace we are given, our spiritual growth may appear insignificant and slow at first, but it will flower in due time. We must practice patience when seeking growth in holiness, as patience is a distinct sign of persevering faith and humility. Like the mustard seed, which “is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the biggest shrub of all and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and shelter in its branches.”
Conversely, if we do not take the evil within us seriously, it will eventually destroy us. In Scripture, yeast often symbolises corruption or evil that spreads silently. Like leaven, evil can grow from strength to strength, hidden within the dough. This is the meaning of the Parable of the Leaven: “The kingdom of heaven is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.” Yet, yeast can also symbolise the goodness within us that can pervade and permeate the entire world. As a transforming agent, if we allow the Word of God to live in us, we will see the active, transforming power of Christ at work in our lives and in the world.
Therefore, instead of feeling discouraged by sin and scandals within the community, we should recognise that God’s grace is far greater than the power of sin. When we feel that the Church has failed us, or that the grace of Christ is not powerful enough to transform our lives, St. Paul reminds us to pray to the Holy Spirit, who “comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God, who knows everything in our hearts, knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.” Truly, God knows our hearts better than we know them ourselves.
We only need to surrender our sins to Him and seek repentance. The Book of Wisdom invites us to exercise patience toward those who fail in the Christian life, simply because God is so remarkably patient with us: “By acting thus you have taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men, and you have given your sons the good hope that after sin you will grant repentance.” Let us never give up on ourselves when we sin against God, nor give up on others who fail us. As long as we are on this earth, God provides the opportunity and grace to repent. At the same time, let us not take His mercy and patience for granted, bearing in mind that at harvest time, an inevitable judgment awaits us all.
Best Practices for Using the Daily Scripture Reflections
- Encounter God through the spirit of prayer and the scripture by reflecting and praying the Word of God daily. The purpose is to bring you to prayer and to a deeper union with the Lord on the level of the heart.
- Daily reflections when archived will lead many to accumulate all the reflections of the week and pray in one sitting. This will compromise your capacity to enter deeply into the Word of God, as the tendency is to read for knowledge rather than a prayerful reading of the Word for the purpose of developing a personal and affective relationship with the Lord.
- It is more important to pray deeply, not read widely. The current reflections of the day would be more than sufficient for anyone who wants to pray deeply and be led into an intimacy with the Lord.
Note: You may share this reflection with someone. However, please note that reflections are not archived online nor will they be available via email request.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
