Year A
Jeremiah 14:17b-22
Psalm 79:8.9.11.13 (R. 9bc)
Matthew 13: 36-43
Repentance, the gate of Mercy
If there is anything that sin makes us look like, it is either an animal or less than an animal. Yesterday, we were made aware that our true nature is conforming to the image of Jesus Christ. This is holiness but from the fall of man, beginning with our first parents' original sin, which led humanity to lose the preternatural gifts of bodily immortality, integrity and infused knowledge, our nature has been corrupted.
During the conversation between God and Cain, before he went to kill his brother Abel, God told him sin is crouching at his door, wanting to get him, but he can master it. The imagery used for sin - crouching - means sin is like a beast, and consequently when you give in to sin you do not only conform your image to the beast but since to conform to the image of someone also involves worshipping the person, you become a worshiper of the beast.
Since our image is corrupted and yet as God said to Cain that he has the Capacity to Master it, we all bear two seeds, the good seed and the evil seed. The good seed which tries to help us to conform to our true nature, the image of Jesus Christ, is the Word of God. The bad seed that brings out the animal in us, is the lies from the father of lies, the evil one.
In the explanation of the Parable today, Jesus wants us to know that since the wheat and the darnels looked alike, it's only the proper judgment, that can help in distinguishing them. This judgment can be done at the harvest time. However, as we are given the capacity to Master the bad seed, so also are we given the capacity to discern our own actions and do what is good.
We can do this because we know the standard, which is our true nature. So these two, our true nature and our corrupted nature as the good seed and the bad seed respectively, must teach us to be careful about judging others as bad and ourselves as good. We can easily change from being good to being worse than those whom we think are bad.
Life and death is set before us. God in seeking to save us gave us the seed of the woman whom he promised in Genesis 3:15, to overcome the seed of the evil one. We are now saved. Through the Good Seed we receive new birth. The Good Seed is imperishable and hence gives life to all who grow in conformity to his image and likeness, while the bad seed does not.
1 Peter 1:23
for your new birth was not from any perishable seed but from imperishable seed, the living and enduring Word of God.
But since we struggle with conforming to the good seed and allow the crouching beasts to get us sometimes, God knowing that we can not do it on our own has granted us a door that can help us to escape from the claws of the beast. This door is repentance. In the first reading and Psalm for today, we are reminded of how important it is to accept God's loving mercy by asking God with a broken, contrite heart to forgive us of our foolish ways. All that we need to do is repent.
Acts 3:19
Now you must repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out,
God wants as to empty ourselves of all pride and confess our sins and he will rescue us from death. Sacrifices are used to cleanse sins, but since our standard, Jesus Christ, came to sacrifice himself for our sins, the only sacrifice required from us is to acknowledge our sins.
Psalm 51:17
Sacrifice to God is a broken spirit, a broken, contrite heart you never scorn.
Repentance is the only door that can grant us access to the mercy of God, and allow God to help us overcome our corrupted nature. God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12: 29), will burn the darnel weeds one day.
By
Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
Edited by
Michael Owusu Amponsah
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