“The 3 C’s of life: Choices, Chances, Changes. You must make a choice to take a chance or your life never changes.”

"God's will is not automatic. He allows us to make choices. Many of the things that happen to you are not God's perfect will. We all have to choose between God's will and our will." – Richard Duane "Rick" Warren (born January 28, 1954) is an American evangelical Christian pastor and author. 

Gospel Text: (MT 13:36-43)

Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house.
His disciples approached him and said,
"Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.
The weeds are the children of the Evil One,
and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his Kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear."

"What kind of soil are you going to choose to have?"  This is the question waiting for us in today's Gospel.

There is no excuse for allowing the devil to take the seed, vain fears rob true faith, love of wealth to choke out God's presence.  We have no excuse because Christ is the gardener, and all we are asked to do is give him permission to till the soil.

How?

Pray.  Go to Mass.  Repent and go to confession.  Pray the Rosary.  Read the Word of God, especially the Mass Readings for the day.  Pray.  Give alms, especially from your heart and from your need.  Pray.  Serve the poor, especially those immediately in your life or home.  Pray.

It isn't that hard.  That is why we don't have any excuse.  We know what we have to do.  We just have to put our hands to the plow and not look back.

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“No one reaches the kingdom of Heaven except by humility”

The Kingdom of God is Within You. - Leo Tolstoy: (1828 – 1910: was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time.

Gospel Text:(MT 13:31-35)

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed
that a person took and sowed in a field.
It is the smallest of all the seeds,
yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants.
It becomes a large bush,
and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"

He spoke to them another parable.
"The Kingdom of heaven is like yeast
that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch was leavened."

All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables.
He spoke to them only in parables,
to fulfill what had been said through the prophet:

I will open my mouth in parables,
I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation
of the world.

The kingdom of heaven grows quietly but surely, like the mustard seed planted in the garden. The kingdom of heaven's growth is like that of the yeast in the dough; its effects are hidden and unseen and yet very effective. The kingdom of heaven grows quietly and surely where love abounds, in the many loving and caring deeds of so many.

Are we doing our part in hastening the arrival and growth of the kingdom of heaven in our lives and in the lives of those we touch?

If it is "daily bread," why do you take it once a year? . . . Take daily what is to profit you daily. Live in such a way that you may deserve to receive it daily. He who does not deserve to receive it daily, does not deserve to receive it once a year.

Jesus has made Himself the Bread of Life to give us life. Night and day, He is there. If you really want to grow in love, come back to the Eucharist, come back to that Adoration. – Mother Teresa: (1910 – 1997: Founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata)

Gospel Text:(JN 6:1-15)

Jesus went across the Sea of Galilee.
A large crowd followed him,
because they saw the signs he was performing on the sick.
Jesus went up on the mountain,
and there he sat down with his disciples.
The Jewish feast of Passover was near.
When Jesus raised his eyes
and saw that a large crowd was coming to him,
he said to Philip,
"Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"
He said this to test him,
because he himself knew what he was going to do.
Philip answered him,
"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough
for each of them to have a little."
One of his disciples,
Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,
"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;
but what good are these for so many?"
Jesus said, "Have the people recline."
Now there was a great deal of grass in that place.
So the men reclined, about five thousand in number.
Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,
and distributed them to those who were reclining,
and also as much of the fish as they wanted.
When they had had their fill, he said to his disciples,
"Gather the fragments left over,
so that nothing will be wasted."
So they collected them,
and filled twelve wicker baskets with fragments
from the five barley loaves
that had been more than they could eat.
When the people saw the sign he had done, they said,
"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."
Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off
to make him king,
he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

The miracles of feeding multitudes with a few loaves of bread are signs of the power of God; they are also a sign of God's loving care for the people who were hungry and needed to be fed.

For us especially the feeding miracles foreshadowed Christ's great gift of himself in the Eucharist, giving us his presence and himself as food and drink looking forward to eternal life, wherever and whenever the Eucharist is offered and celebrated.

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenements halls and whispered in the sounds of silence.

Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.- FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY, The Brothers Karamazov

Gospel Text: (MT 12:38-42)

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,
“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
He said to them in reply,
“An evil and unfaithful generation seeks a sign,
but no sign will be given it
except the sign of Jonah the prophet.
Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights,
so will the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth
three days and three nights.
At the judgment, the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah;
and there is something greater than Jonah here.
At the judgment the queen of the south will arise with this generation
and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth
to hear the wisdom of Solomon;
and there is something greater than Solomon here.”

If one were to choose a saying of Our Lord from elsewhere in the Gospel to summarize today’s Gospel passage, one might choose: “Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required” [Luke 12:48]. A more mundane way to express Jesus’ disapproval of the request for a sign would be to say that the scribes and Pharisees don’t know what they’re asking for. It’s dangerous to ask for a sign, because with the sign comes the responsibility to follow that sign. Signs command us to stop, or yield, or put a limit on our speed.

At the end of today’s passage, Jesus contrasts the scribes and Pharisees with “the men of Nineveh” and “the queen of the south”. This isn’t meant to flatter the scribes and Pharisees. The men of Nineveh and the queen of the south were not upstanding characters. Nonetheless, the men of Nineveh were given the sign of “the preaching of Jonah”, and they responded to the sign of the prophet by repenting. The queen of the south was given the sign of the “wisdom of Solomon”, and she responded by coming from “the ends of the earth to hear” him.

Jesus’ bottom line puts the scribes and Pharisees in their place. As bad as the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south were, they repented when given signs by Jonah and Solomon. Since the scribes and Pharisees will be given a far greater sign, by one who is far greater than Jonah and Solomon (not only a prophet and king, but the divine priest as well), they will be judged by a far higher standard. Should they not repent (as up to this point in the Gospel account they had not), the conclusion is that their culpability would be far greater.