Scripture readings for July 19, 2026, Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wis 12:13, 16-19 Ps 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16 Rom 8:26-27 Mt 13:24-43 OR Mt 13:24-30
Every landscaping expert will offer this simple advice for keeping a beautiful lawn:
Kill the weeds.
But if you look for a second opinion, the Ultimate Authority will tell you differently. God, who created the first lawn — and, significantly, the First Garden makes room for weeds. He’s not quick to pull them up. He’s more patient than we are. That’s just one of the heartening lessons from this Sunday’s Gospel, which offers us abundant messages of wisdom and hope that serve as reminders of our Creator’s merciful love.
The parable we encounter this Sunday about the weeds and the wheat is unique to Matthew — and it represents another great example of how Jesus was able to take ordinary things, objects familiar to anyone in 1st century Galilee, and spin a tale to teach a larger lesson and make some valuable points.
In summary: First, the kingdom of heaven is closer and more accessible than we may realize. Christ never tired of making connections that could challenge and inspire his listeners, and he did that here, too.
The kingdom he described in his parables is relatable and real — as humble as a mustard seed, as vast as wheat in a field. It’s comprised of things we can see, smell, touch. If we think the kingdom is remote and unattainable, think again. God has planted examples everywhere. We need simply to look and learn.
Secondly, God is more forgiving and patient than we are. We, the servants, would be quick to pull up weeds. (I now live in a house with a lawn, with grass to mow and mulch to spread and weeds that are just begging to be pulled. It’s frustrating. Who doesn’t want a perfect front yard?) But God, the greatest landowner, sees things differently — and that applies to more than just grass. How quick are we to judge, to condemn, to pull on our gloves to yank up and destroy the weeds in our world? God says: Wait. He offers the gift of time. He allows for growth and, just maybe, change. Do we?
Finally, we learn that the only one qualified to judge what should be burned is God. Among other things, this parable is a cautionary tale that should make all of us ask: How quickly do I try to remove what I dislike? How often do I judge? In the garden of life, how am I spending my time? More to the point: Am I growing into a creation that can become bread? Or am I something else? Do I want to follow the example of the Bread of Life? Or is my heart and my desire elsewhere?
A merciful and loving God is watching, tending, waiting.
Check out the words from Wisdom in the first reading, which give perspective: “There is no god besides you who have the care of all…though you are master of might, you judge with clemency and with much lenience you govern us … you taught your people by these deeds, that those who are just must be kind.”
We live in a world today in which that one final word — kind — is too often considered something unnecessary or weak. Kindness and clemency, goodness and mercy, are dismissed or discarded. Vengeance and retribution are the buzzwords of our time.
But this Sunday, the scripture tells us: no. Don’t be so quick to judge because our Lord isn’t. God does not give up on us that quickly. He gives us the immeasurable blessing of time opportunities to learn, to change, to grow.
He wants us to be wheat. Shouldn’t we want that, too?
Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
