Religion: Gospel and Homily at Mass - The Kingdom Parables (Sunday, July 17, 2011)

+ JMJ +

From Matthew 13:24-43

a)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the man who sowed good seed in his field ....

The Parable of the Wheat and Tares 

Immature tares -- very difficult to distinguish from wheat at this stage.

 Almost mature wheat and tares ... the tares are really starting to stand out now.

Wheat and Tares

 

The wheat gathered into the barn and the tares burnt.  (Matthew 13:30)

b)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the mustard seed .... 

"... if you have faith the size of a mustard seed .... Nothing will be impossible for you."  Matthew 17:20

c)  The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast ....

Yeast added to flour

Yeast makes the bread rise

Knead the bread, shape, then bake.

Hmm ... delicious!

~  Discussion at home during dinner, then again during lunch the next day:  Total time - 40 mins.

~  Some highlights from Fr. Saunders's homily:  

God allowed the wheat to live with the weeds.  Father talked about the "tare," which in the Bible is a noxious weed that is like a narcotic, in that it can cause dizziness when eaten and death when taken in large amounts.  He talked about how we need to be careful because tare can look like wheat.  He especially talked about how kids going to high school or college for the first time need to be careful not to be fooled by the weeds and be poisoned.

I also told the kids about how the world sometimes disguises the poison and presents it as sweet, like in the seemingly harmless scene in the Audrey Hepburn movie, "Sabrina," where she is shown sitting on her dressing table in her Paris apartment, looking beautiful in her dressing gown, writing to her Father, and proudly saying that she is now "in the world and OF the world."  A person who is beguiled by Audrey Hepburn and the movie, AND lacks spiritual formation, can be persuaded to live that way, when Christ has really called us to be "in the world, but NOT of the world."

 Quote from "Sabrina" (1953)

I also talked about how the devil is sneaky and inserts little bits of poison, again in seemingly harmless places, like in an otherwise good book or movie -- all it takes is one poisonous scene, picture or page, and it's stuck in our minds forever.  We don't know whether the person writing the book or making the film is a wheat or a weed, that's why I need to screen these things for you, while you're still kids.  That way, the devil won't rob you of your precious innocence and youth.  It's our way of protecting you from the weeds of this world.  When you're older, with stronger spiritual formation and experience, then you can screen everything for yourself.