Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 27, 2019
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.
“The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
While everyone was asleep his enemy came
and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.
When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.
The slaves of the householder came to him and said,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where have the weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’
He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds
you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest;
then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”
I have sometimes had a habit of labeling people, experiences, and memories as “good” or “bad.” But I remember when one particular experience challenged this practice. I was working in a foreign country, felt like I could not trust the organization where I was working, and disagreed with most of my coworkers on fundamental issues. I quickly deemed the experience a “bad” one and most of the people involved “bad” as well. Caught up in my self-righteousness, I was eager to return home, where I knew “good” people and had “good” experiences.
But during my last week of work, a pastor, preaching on these agricultural parables, shed new light on my situation. He suggested that the seeds planted represent not different kinds of people but rather the complexity of the human heart. The truth that today’s Gospel explores is that each harvest, every human heart has the capacity for great good and evil.
I then realized that I was not created any better or worse than my coworkers. I began to see the good in my time abroad and accept my experience as not wholly “bad” or “good,” but intertwined, like the weeds and the wheat.
The world has a great deal of evil in it, but God loves creation so much that our world appears to God as “very good.” The parable in today’s Gospel is not, to me, a story of judgment, of separating the “good people” from the “bad people” but actually a story of God’s mercy, which reaches to the ends of the earth. God sees us as we are, weeds and all and yet does not uproot us. God lets us grow, and, in the end, clears the weeds away, restoring us to goodness and gathering us in.
Prayer
Almighty God, every day you reveal to us your presence and the depth of your love for us. Open our hearts to receive your mercy, our minds to understand your wisdom. Make us worthy vessels of your grace. Help us bring your love to a broken world. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Sts. Aurelius and Natalia, a Christian married couple in Islamic-controlled Spain, were martyred when they decided to refrain from hiding their faith any longer.
Aurelius was the son of a Spanish woman who had married a Muslim; they were a family of distinction in Cordoba. Both of his parents died when he was a boy, and Aurelius was left in the care of an aunt, who raised him as a Christian.
As he grew and matured, he was Christian in secret and Muslim to all appearances. He married a woman who was also from a half-Muslim family, and after their wedding, she converted to Christianity, taking the name Natalia at her baptism.
One day, Aurelius saw a man from Cordoba beaten and humiliated for standing up for his Christian faith; he was led through the city on a donkey to be gawked at. The sight moved Aurelius, and he was ashamed that he had protected his safety instead of publicly proclaiming his faith.
By this time, Aurelius and Natalia had two young children, and they worried that if they were public with their faith, that they would be martyred and would leave their children destitute. They consulted a holy man in the Christian community, St. Eulogius, who advised them to make arrangements for their children to be cared for and raised as Christians if anything happened to them.
Aurelius and Natalia’s discernment inspired a relative to return to the faith. Felix was Aurelius’ cousin and was raised a Christian, but had turned away to practice Islam. Felix’s wife, Liliosa, remained faithful, and when he returned to the faith, they joined Aurelius and Natalia in reaching out to support imprisoned Christians. They even came to know that man whom Aurelius had seen paraded through the streets.
Aurelius welcomed to his home a traveling monk, George, who came from a monastery in Jerusalem and was traveling to beg for alms to support his community. The two became close friends.
Natalia and Liliosa decided to openly visit the Christian churches in Cordoba with their faces open and unveiled. They were spotted and watched. When the two couples were gathered at Aurelius’ house to celebrate the Mass, they were all arrested, along with the visiting monk, George.
They were all charged with turning away from Islam and condemned to death. As a foreigner, George was given leniency and permitted to leave, but he chose to stay with the faithful couples and to be martyred with them.
Relics of St. Aurelius rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
Sts. Aurelius and Natalia, the Christians who inspired their relatives to boldly proclaim the faith in the face of martyrdom, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Natalia is used with permission from Catholic Online. Last accessed March 20, 2025.