Deacon Jerry Franzen
CATHEDRAL – JULY 19, 2020
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Romans 8: 26-27 Matthew 13: 24-43
Praised Be Jesus Christ. Good Morning
*A mother asked her daughter if she would like an ice cream sundae.
The daughter replied, “No, I
would like it today.”
We are not a very patient
society.
I have recently had two
stays in the hospital, so I have learned,
once again, just why the person being treated is called a
patient.
We have become so accustomed
to instant gratification,
everything at our fingertips when we want it or need it.
**I also have heard that
patience is the ability
by which we can endure something
as long as it happens to the other fellow.
In these days of trial with
the coronavirus
it certainly can be hard to be patient.
Patience is one of the
fruits of the Holy Spirit.
The fruits of the Spirit arise
in us and are to be used by us,
for the good of the community.
They are listed in St. Paul’s
letter to the Galatians (5:22-23),
and develop in us from the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit
which we receive at Baptism and
which are reinforced at our Confirmation.
Patience is at the heart of
the readings today.
I
In today’s first reading
from the Book of Wisdom,
we heard of God being addressed as “caring for all”,
as master of all things and lenient to all.
Imagine what it would take
to be lenient to everyone,
when one has power over all things, can do all things.
God is very patience with our
shortcomings.
The reading goes on to say, “..though God is the master of might,
He judges with clemency and governs with leniency.”
So God governs with leniency;
how are we governed?
We have the whole
establishment in Washington
and our state and local governments that work to rule us.
Supposedly their job is to try
to keep us on the path
that will be for our benefit here on earth.
Often I have trouble seeing
how all of the politics is for our benefit.
We might stop right here and
ask:
Is it God who really governs what we do?
I know that our governor has
said that we must wear masks,
and I hope
that his motives are driven
by what he sees as
our ultimate benefit, as our safety.
But do we consider that God
also tells us
that we must do everything we can
to keep our
brothers and sisters safe?
The reading goes on to say
that
God teaches that
those who are just must be kind.
Certainly God in His
teaching role must be patient
with us who are so slow to learn.
II
Last week we
heard the parable of the person sowing seeds
on different types of soil.
Jesus
explained the parable as the seed of faith
sown in the hearts of persons with different dispositions
for that faith to grow
in their hearts.
Immediately
after that in Matthew’s Gospel,
Jesus tells the parable we heard today.
It’s again
about sowing seed but a different situation;
all of the good seed is sown in good soil, where it can grow.
This would
represent those who receive the gift of faith
from God the “sower”
and are in the process of
growing in that faith.
That would
represent us.
The enemy then
sowed weed seed among the good seed.
The weed seeds
certainly must have looked to be harmless
at the beginning.
Eventually the
weed seedlings could be distinguished
from the good ones.
The devil has
sown evil within the world, we exist with it
and we learn to identify it.
The servants
wanted to pull up the weeds,
but
the householder told the servants to be patient.
They were to
let the good plants develop among the weeds
and to separate them
when they were easily
distinguished at the harvest.
There was the
fear that puling the weeds
would result in pulling up the good
plants as well.
Again we hear
of God’s patience.
He wants our
faith to mature and be strengthened
for we will tested by the evil, the
weeds of the world.
God knows that
there will be times in our lives
when our faith in Him may be weakened.
He wants to
give us time to work all of that out,
to be fully grounded in our faith.
III
THE Good News IS
that God is very patient with us.
He has all of
the power and might to punish us when we sin.
In fact, He
has the power to keep us from evil,
He could pull
the weeds out of our lives,
but he wants US to make the decision against evil,
to
choose good, to have our faith strengthened
as we deal with the obstacles that come into our lives.
And if we
fail, he is always patiently there
to accept our sorrow, to grant our request for forgiveness.
God will never get fed up
with us; He will never give up on us.
That is why He sent His Son.
God’s patience is very Good News for us!
It then follows that for us
to be more God-like,
we must be patient, use this fruit of the Holy Spirit.
***A preacher tells the
following story about himself:
“Three minutes had elapsed
since I had taken my seat at the lunch counter,
Waitresses passed me by;
two cooks and a bus boy took no notice of my presence.
My ego was soothed only
because
the truck driver seated next to me was ignored as well.
‘Maybe this counter is off
limits,’ I said to him.
‘Maybe they are short of
help,’ he responded
‘Maybe they don’t want our
business,’ I said.
‘Maybe they are taking care of
those at the tables,’
was his reply.
The hands on the clock
continued to move.
‘Maybe they don’t like us,’
I insisted.
‘The air conditioning feels
so good, I don’t mind waiting,’ he said.
At this point a harried
waitress stopped to tell us
that the water had been shut off and there was no way to
wash dishes.
The nameless truck driver
just smiled at me,
thanked the waitress and left."
The preacher then realized that
the truck driver was practicing
what, he, the preacher had been preaching.
Do we deal with others with
patience?
Do we make time and space
for the other side of the story?
Are we always upset when
someone is late?
Are we discouraged when we
or someone else
keeps making the
same mistake over and over?
We are all called to be
patient with others.
And what about
our patience with God?
****A
speedboat driver described
what had happened to him in an
accident.
He was racing
when, in a turn, his speed and a wave combined
to flip his boat upside down in the
air
and
he was thrown down deep into the water -
so deep that he did not know
which
direction was toward the surface.
He had to wait
for the buoyancy of his life vest
to overcome the downward force and
set him upright under the water.
Then he could
swim to the surface.
Sometimes we
find ourselves surrounded by confusing options,
so deeply immersed in our problems
that
we do not know which way is up.
When this
happens, we must just remain calm, have patience,
and wait for God’s gentle tug to
pull us in the right direction.
Our “life vest”
might be other Christians, Sacred Scripture,
or some other leading of the Holy
Spirit.
But the key is
to be patient with God;
recognize our dependency on Him and
trust that He will guide us.
* Taken from “ 1001
More Humorous Illustrations for Public Speaking” by Michael Hodgin Zondervan, Grans Rapids, MI, 1998, p 239
** Taken from “The Awesome Book of Heavenly Humor” by Bob
Phillips, Harvest House , Eugene, OR 2003 p 145
**** Taken from “A World of Stories for Preachers and
Teachers” by William Bausch, Twenty Third Publications, Mystic, CT 1998 p350
**** Taken from “750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers,
Teachers and Writers” from Craig Brian Larson and Leadership Journal Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI 2007 p 391
