News - July 2023 RSS Feed

Today we continue to reflect upon farming and harvest imagery. The central meaning of the parable is that the Kingdom of God takes root in imperfect communities of “wheat and weed” and in both an imperfect church and world. The threats of farming to go bad are real and yet it is the abundant life that is the expected outcome, just as weeds that threaten to choke out the long-anticipated good harvest.

With the celebration of this Sunday, we continue through the Ordinary Time of the church’s liturgical life. It is “the green season”– it is the season of growth. At the height of the growing season in the northern hemisphere, today's liturgy reminds us that the soul, like soil, must be well prepared if we expect good things to grow from it.

At the heart of summer vacation, Jesus extends to us an incredible invitation, “Come to me all you who labor and find life burdensome and I will give you rest.” Although summer for most of us is all about rest and rejuvenation, we know that sometimes even vacation can be a time of exhaustion and anxiety.