16th Week in Ordinary Time (B) : Saturday 27th July 2024

We are labelled as hypocrites when a dichotomy is apparent between our words and actions. More often than not, we tend to pay lip service to God while behaving contrary to His way. Jesus later cautions His listeners “They honour Me with their words, but their heart is really far away from me,” (Mt 15:8). A perennial question that is posed to us constantly is this – are we really practising what we preach ? This is a clear litmus test to anyone who comes to church regularly and receives the Sacraments, it tests the consistency of behaviour in Christ-like manner that will indicate our reverence in receiving the Word and the Body of Christ.

If the adage “we become what we eat” holds true, shouldn’t we become more and more like Jesus, Who nourished us and Whom we imbibe? When our Christ-like values are brought into the world, we redirect the world into the Church. Hence, our witnessing is that actions always speak in tandem with words. People will differentiate the genuine and the fake.

When Jesus narrates the parable of the darnel and the wheat growing together, He points out that the darnel cannot be pulled out before harvest because it will affect the wheat as well. While acknowledging that fake exists, we can keep the fake at bay. Co-existence is not necessarily succumbing to evil but exposing the fakeness.

Lord grant us the endurance and alertness to grow among the darnel but never to become like it.