Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 19, 2026: Your might is the source of justice...

Your might is the source of justice…
Just how open is God’s kingdom? 

    Jesus spends a lot of time in Matthew’s Gospel teaching the crowds about the kingdom of heaven, particularly through the use of parables. We are pretty familiar with the image of the mustard seed, which grows into a large bush where the birds of the sky come and dwell (ordinary mustard seeds do nothing of the sort!) and the image of the yeast, which suggests that God’s kingdom expands in ways we cannot imagine. More complex is the parable of the weeds among the wheat, in which good seed grows and bears fruit, but darnel, a pernicious weed, grows as well. When asked, Do you want us to go and pull the bad weeds?, the master gardener instructs his workers, No, if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat with them. God is patient, not judgmental; like the farmer, God is willing to wait until all have a chance to show themselves. And, as Psalm 86 reminds us, the Lord is good and forgiving, open to all who seek to live in right relationship with him. 

    This notion of God’s expansive compassionate justice is announced in the Book of Wisdom as well. Though you are master of might, you judge with clemency, the author of Wisdom states, and with much lenience you govern us. Rather than simply annihilate the enemies of God’s people, God gives all good ground for hope because God permits repentance for sins, not only to the people of Israel, but to all. God has the care of all. Moreover, should we ever be tempted to impose our own judgment, we should remember what Paul tells the Romans: the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. The Spirit joins us in our groanings, enabling us to pray for our world and its sinful brokenness. God is the one who searches hearts, and only God is called to judge them. 

    Jesus’ parables reveal a secret: the reign of God is here and the reign of God works more profoundly than we could possibly imagine! We are called to do whatever reveals his love – to let him rule our lives, direct our hearts, rule our hearts. In so doing, we will see that reign dawn and division decrease. But if we give into fear, we lose the very thing we put our faith in. It’s God’s way we follow, God’s justice we enact… not our own. And God’s kingdom is large enough to hold all! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Mary unties our knots (Pope Francis)

Today is the Feast of
Our Lady of Mount Carmel,
the Patroness of our parish!

       Marian devotion has a privileged place. Mary is an advocate, but these days the word advocate is too functional. It is better to say that she is a “facilitator.” Mary is a facilitator when conflicts and problems arise, such as the lack of wine at the wedding. She helps us to “untie the knots” that can be created in us and between us. In other words, Mary also paves the way for friendship between peoples, inviting us to turn our gaze to the origin and goal of our existence, which is Jesus Christ, and encourages us to follow His example, walking the paths of peace, kindness, listening and patient and trusting dialogue. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source 1: Our Lady of Mount Carmel banner, sewn by Gail Angiulo, OLMC-Mill Valley (2023), https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=673482714817146&set=a.673491021482982
Image source 2: Johann Georg Schmidtner, Our Lady, Untier of Knots (1700), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary,_Untier_of_Knots#/media/File:MaryUntier.jpg
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We must tend the soil of our hearts (Fr. Patrick van der Vorst)

    We must tend the soil of our hearts. Faith is God’s gift, but we have a part to play in nurturing it. Prayer is one of the richest nutrients for this soil: our personal prayer, spoken in the quiet of the heart, and the shared prayer of the believing community. In today’s Gospel, the “good soil” is described as those who hear the word with a noble and generous heart. Prayer disposes us to receive the Word in this way, creating the environment where the fragile seed of faith can take root, deepen, and bear fruit in abundance. 

   We can think of faith as a garden entrusted to us. The seed has already been sown by God, but it is prayer that waters it, Scripture that gives it light, and love that keeps the weeds away. If we tend this garden faithfully, the seed of faith will not just survive, it will flourish, bearing fruit beyond our expectations. 

--Fr. Patrick van der Vorst,
Christian Art,
September 20, 2025

Image and quotation source: Claude Monet, The Artist's Garden at Giverny (1900),  https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/luke-8-4-15-2025/

It would explode our minds (Dwight L. Moody / Robert Cording)

Give your life to God;
he can do more with it
than you can.

--Dwight L. Moody

      We live in a goodness that we can’t explain – that is excessive, that’s mysterious, and that, if we paid attention to it, it would explode our minds. 

--Robert Cording 

Image source: https://heathercking.org/2019/01/28/bible-verses-about-the-abundance-of-god-2/
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God's hand (Paula Nelsen)

    A few days ago, I saw to my horror that I had let my little houseplant garden dry up. Most of the plants in the pots were sadly wilted and looking dead. I had been so preoccupied by projects that they had slipped my mind. So, I watered them, soaked them, and hoped for the best. The very next day, they had transformed, almost like magic – the Christmas cactus, the shamrock, the orchid and the begonia all suddenly bloomed with bright little flowers. I was suddenly relieved. 

    Finally, when I sat down to read [Isaiah 55], it all seemed so simple and clear. Outside, the rain was pouring down. Inside, I was reading: Just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down, and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful… so we can plant seeds, make bread, and eat! The rainstorm no longer looked dreary. I could see its incredible beauty and its incredible, beautiful power, and God’s hand behind it. 

--Paula Nelsen,
Communion Service Reflection,
February 20, 2024

Image source: https://www.reddit.com/r/houseplants/comments/14p5lgt/are_these_plants_dead_housesitting_concerned/

Everything is possible (Pope Leo XIV / Corrie Ten Boom)

The fruitfulness of Christian life
does not depend on human approval,
but on the perseverance of those who,
united to Christ like the branch to the vine, 
bear fruit when their season comes.

 --Pope Leo XIV

    The wonderful thing about praying is that you leave a world of not being able to do something, and enter God’s realm where everything is possible. He specializes in the impossible. Nothing is too great for His almighty power. Nothing is too small for His love. 

--Corrie Ten Boom 

Image source: A leaf sheep (Costasiella kuroshimae) is a sea slug that is believed to be able to perform photosynthesis. It is no bigger than a grain of rice, yet God has made it able to pull off one of nature’s craziest tricks! Each one of its green “leaves” is covered in chloroplasts taken from the algae it eats (a phenomenon bearing the terrific name of kleptoplasty). Once it has fed, the leaf sheep stores these chloroplasts inside its body, allowing it to convert sunlight into energy – just like a plant. https://kottke.org/26/04/the-leaf-sheep-slug-the-animal-that-eats-sunshine for more details. In God’s realm, everything is possible!
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Note: Corrie Ten Boom knew something about the impossible that God could accomplish through human participation in God's works. With her family, Ms. Ten Boom helped to save the lives of hundreds of Jewish refugees to the Netherlands during World War II. She herself was eventually arrested and sent to a concentration camp, but she survived and became a significant Christian writer and speaker.

Unlimited seeds (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    The God of the Gospels is the Sower who has unlimited seeds, and scatters those seeds everywhere without discrimination: on the road, in ditches, in the thorn bushes, in bad soil, and in good soil. This prodigal God gives us this perennial invitation: Come to the waters, come without money, come without merit… because God’s gift is as plentiful, as available, and as free as the air we breathe. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Facebook, June 12, 2023

Image source 1: https://bonecreek.org/v2/wp-content/uploads/The-Sower.jpg
Image source 2: Plateau di Castelluccio di Norcia, Umbria, Italy, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=24079443388378547&set=gm.4025742350980166&idorvanity=1884776005076822
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