Scripture Reflection, July 19, 2026, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

(My apologies. This entry is late this week because I was on a trip and did not get it posted in a timely manner.)

Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Romans 8:26-27 Matthew 13:24-43

I suspect most of us have seen the poster that reads "Be patient with me. God isn't finished with me yet!” Wise words. We are all just a work in progress. Still growing. Still intentionally working to eliminate faults, correct foibles, strengthen weak places. That is who we all are… part wheat, part weed. Blessed but broken.

I certainly see that in myself. And so I take consolation in the part of today's gospel in which the householder is patient with his field. He cautions his servants to resist pulling the weeds out until growing season is over, lest the wheat be disturbed too. That reminds me to use the time I have to grow with the grace of God into the best version of myself. To conquer bad habits. To learn more generous ways of being toward others. To forgive more readily as God forgives me…always aware that my time here is limited, that harvest time for me will come sooner rather than later.

This parable also reminds me that if I am a work in progress, so is everyone else. I cannot know what load they carry, what kind of struggle for growth they experience. And so it behooves me to leave the judging up to the householder.

This doesn't mean that I am blind to the evils in the world… that I ignore injustice when I see it. But it does mean that I do not meet violence with violence, injustice with injustice. It does mean that while I continue to work for peace and justice, I treat those others with whom I disagree with charity remembering that they, too are not "done" yet.

by: Pat Schnee, OPA