Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 28, 2026
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.”
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The full readings of the day from the Lectionary are available here.
“Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field,” the disciples say to Jesus, and he proceeds to tell them, ending with the instruction: “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
This could be the moral of the parable itself. Or it could be another reminder to the disciples of how parables ought to be received. Earlier in the chapter, Jesus described the crowd as people who “will hardly hear with their ears.” In contrast, he told the disciples: “Many prophets and righteous people longed… to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”
I often think it’s a little unfair that the disciples get an explanation of the parable, while the crowd wrestles with its meaning on their own. But then I wonder whether it’s the disciples who’ve been cheated, getting a quick answer rather than uncovering the truth of the parable themselves.
In truth, the explanation of a text, however simple it appears, only begets more questions. In today’s parable: What does it mean to be good? What do we do with the reality the parable lays out—that good and evil are left to coexist until the time of the harvest?
Jesus’ explanation clarifies the parable’s meaning, but this does not make it less challenging for the disciples to truly hear. Without contemplating its meaning, the disciples might still fall into what Isaiah’s prophecy warned against: “You shall indeed hear but not understand.”
As modern readers, we get both the parable and the breakdown that Jesus provides the disciples afterwards. We are invited to hear both. Beyond the text, we are given a broader invitation: to sit with both the complex and the simple, to trust that there will be clarity in what appears obscure and further sites of contemplation in what appears straightforward.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you look up on all of creation with great love. In your wisdom and patience you allow the weeds to grow up alongside the wheat. When we encounter wickedness in the world, may we stay firm in our faith and trust in your providential love. Through the grace of your Son Jesus Christ, may we remain in your love, and so bear much fruit. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Nazarius was an early Christian martyr who learned the faith from St. Peter himself and then traveled far and wide to share it with others.
Nazarius’ father was an officer in the Roman army, and his mother was a Christian. Through her, Nazarius was connected to the Christian community in Rome, and he was instructed in the faith by Peter.
Filled with zeal to share the good news with others, Nazarius left Rome to teach the faith to others and enlisted the help of another young man, Celsus. When they arrived in Milan, they were arrested under a new persecution ordered by the emperor. They were both beheaded and buried in a garden.
Several centuries later, St. Ambrose discovered their remains. In Nazarius’ tomb, Ambrose found bright red, flowing blood that looked as though it had just been spilled. He moved the bodies of these saints into a new church, and a woman who was suffering from possession was exorcised and liberated at that place through their intercession.
Relics of St. Nazarius rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Nazarius, you were the young man who learned the faith from St. Peter and were killed for sharing it with others—pray for us!