Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Kim Philby was a British intelligence officer, but was also a double agent for

the Soviet Union. In the 1940s and early 50s it is thought he was responsible

for the deaths of many Western agents, because he was leaking the details of

their secret operations to the communists. It was only in 1963 that he realised

the game was up and fled to the USSR.

There were also other communist agents operating in this country. He was a

leading member of the so-called Cambridge spy ring, a group of men from

Cambridge university who joined the Soviet cause in the 1930s. Furthermore,

in the 1940s and 50s in America, there was also a movement to eradicate

communists from government departments, Hollywood and other places in

society. It was led by US senator Joseph McCarthy, and became known as

McCarthyism. The worry and the fear of communist infiltrators led to all sorts

of people being denounced, although relatively few people were actually

convicted, and it created something of an uproar and destabilisation in society.

In the end, it was thought that McCarthy went too far in his accusations, and

was eventually censured by the Senate for the way he had proceeded in his

enquiries.

At one point, a former communist spoke to Archbishop Fulton Sheen and

claimed that another Catholic bishop was actually a communist agent. He

forbade her to publicly reveal his name, and to this day, as far as I am aware,

we don’t know who the bishop was.

Today’s Gospel is a bit of an illustration of all of this. A man sows good seed

in his field, but an enemy comes along and sows weeds. According to one of

the commentaries I looked at, the weeds were cockle, which looks very similar

to wheat until the ears appear. If they are harvested and mixed together with

the wheat to make flour, the bread can cause severe nausea when eaten. There

were cases in the East of people trying to get their own back on people by

sowing cockle among their wheat, and the Romans actually made a law against

this practice, together with penalties for those who were caught.

In this parable, there’s also a bit of a joke going on. Those who knew about

farming would know that it’s a hopeless task to try to go through the field and

pull up all the cockle. It’s not just a matter of trying to find every single weed,

but also that when you try and pull it up you ruin the wheat as well. So you can

imagine, as the parable was being told, the experienced farmers laughing at the

idea of the junior servants to go and pull it all up. No, the only way is to wait

until harvest time, and then you separate the two types of grain. And once

again we have the image of those who are wheat, stored in the barn of heaven,

and those who are evil, represented as weeds that are tied together and burnt in

the fire.

It was an illustration well-known to the people standing around, and a great

teaching aid about the mercy of God, and that, for those who do not avail of

God’s mercy, God’s judgement will stare them in the face instead. God gives

us time to repent. He is not quick to judge and condemn, and neither should

we. St John Vianney used to say that the saints did not all begin well, but they

all ended well. We don’t know who will change sides, including those who

begin as good but then get seduced by evil. If we were God and quick to judge,

we might have struck down Saul, and there would never have been a St Paul.

In the first reading it says: “You are sovereign in strength but you judge with

mildness, and with great forbearance you govern us.” God is almighty, but He

is in control of His power. He doesn’t “lose his rag” and decide to strike us

with thunderbolts. So the reading continues: “Through such works you have

taught your people that the one who is righteous must be kind, and you have

filled your sons with good hope, because you give repentance for sins.”

Praised be to God that we are given time to repent and change our ways. Not

everyone responds to God’s patience and mercy. But for those of us who do, it

will be a reason for us to glorify God for all eternity.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk