{"id":61970,"date":"2023-07-18T18:32:05","date_gmt":"2023-07-18T23:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=61970"},"modified":"2023-08-09T09:45:12","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T14:45:12","slug":"ars-praedicandi-sixteenth-sunday-of-ordinary-time-ed-foley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2023\/07\/18\/ars-praedicandi-sixteenth-sunday-of-ordinary-time-ed-foley\/","title":{"rendered":"Ars Praedicandi:<\/i> Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Ed Foley"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Fr. Edward Foley, Capuchin<\/em><\/p>\n

He was not quite the Karate Kid:
\nno Jaden Smith,
\nno Ralph Macchio,
\nnor budding movie star \u2026 after all, he only had one arm,
\nhaving lost his left one in a devastating car accident.<\/p>\n

To build up his confidence
\nand with much encouragement from his family
\nhe decided to study judo with a seasoned Master.<\/p>\n

The boy did amazingly well,
\nbut after three months of training
\nhe had only been taught one move.<\/p>\n

\u201cSensei,\u201d he asked, \u201cshouldn\u2019t I be learning more moves?\u201d
\nThe Master replied, \u201cthis is the only move
\nyou will ever need to know.\u201d
\nTrusting his wise teacher, he continued training.<\/p>\n

Months later, the Master enrolled the boy in a public tournament.
\nHe did amazingly well, winning match after match
\nuntil, to everyone\u2019s surprise, he ended up in the finals.<\/p>\n

His opponent in that match was not only older
\nand more experienced,
\nbut was considerably stronger and towered above him.<\/p>\n

Concerned that the boy with only a right arm might get hurt
\nthe referee wanted to call off the match
\nbut Sensei insisted that it go on.<\/p>\n

With this daunting challenger
\na grueling struggle ensued
\nbut when his opponent dropped his guard
\nthe boy used his one move to pin his opponent
\nwinning match and tournament.<\/p>\n

On the way home, after some silence
\nthe young champion asked his Master,
\n\u201cSensei, how did I win the tournament with only 1 move?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sensei replied, \u201cYou won for two reasons:
\nfirst, you mastered one of the most difficult throws
\nin all of Judo,
\nand second, the only known defense for that move
\nis for your opponent to grab your left arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

There you have it,
\na baptized equivalent of a Sheldon Cooper \u201cbazinga\u201d
\nthe unexpected final twist that catches us off-guard
\nambushes us with wisdom,
\npulls the rug out from under our presumptions
\nand delivers a considerable dose of humility
\nto those who think they understand.
\nIt\u2019s called a parable!<\/p>\n

Jesus was a master of the parable
\nhis most characteristic form of instruction
\non full display again in today\u2019s gospel.<\/p>\n

Like other teaching strategies
\nparables have multiple dynamics,
\nwhich is why they are so effective.
\nOne obvious dynamic,
\nlike in the right handed karate kid story
\nemploying a move than can only be countered
\nby grabbing a missing left arm,
\nis the element of surprise
\nthat knocks the listener off balance.<\/p>\n

In the process the parable dismantles our presuppositions
\ndisrupts our usual line of thinking
\nand proposes unexpected and sometimes uncomfortable
\nnew truths.<\/p>\n

These dynamics are effective
\nbecause parables are the ultimate narrative onion
\ncomprising increasingly complex layers
\nwhose central message cannot be skimmed off the surface
\nbut requires thoughtful excavation.<\/p>\n

A superficial reading of today\u2019s parable about wheat and weeds
\ncould give the impression that God\u2019s reign is binary-
\nblack and white,
\ngood and evil-
\nthat there are only wheat and weeds:
\nsaints and sinners,
\nChristians and non-Christians,
\nand Irish and those who want to be –
\none is obviously good \u2026 the other is highly questionable.<\/p>\n

We are wired for this instinctive and problematic kind of thinking:
\na source of much humor and critique:<\/p>\n

Like Mark Twain\u2019s: \u201cThere are basically two types of people.
\nPeople who accomplish things
\nand people who claim to have accomplished things.<\/p>\n

He concluded: \u201cThe first group is less crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dear Abby suggested that the two kinds of people
\nare those who walk into a room and say, \u2018There you are!\u2019 and those who walk into a room and say, \u2018Here I am!\u2019<\/p>\n

Humorous Robert Benchley summarizes:
\n\u201cThere are two kinds of people in the world,
\nthose who believe there are two kinds of people in the world
\nand those who don\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

Jesus is clearly in the second category.
\nIn his ministry he did not divide folk up
\ninto redeemable and irredeemable,
\nworthy and unworthy,
\nor lovable and despicable.<\/p>\n

Rather, his ministry was nothing less than an extended parable
\nthat continuously scrambled traditional thinking,
\nupended well established categories,
\nand redefined the very reign of God.<\/p>\n

That disruption is clearly operative in today\u2019s parable
\nthat in some ways raises more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

From one perspective you could argue
\nthat the agricultural advice Jesus is dispensing here is
\n‘don\u2019t pull out the tares, the darnel, the lolium temultentum –<\/em>
\nthe weed that looks like wheat,
\nbut is bitter to the taste and even poisonous.<\/p>\n

Instead, a surface reading has Jesus saying \u201cwait!
\nHold on until harvest when we will savor the wheat
\nand torch that bothersome weed,
\nthat weapon of the enemy.\u00a0 Justice will be served.”<\/p>\n

But like every parable, things aren\u2019t always what they seem.
\nMaybe the weed is the equivalent of the wheat\u2019s left arm!<\/p>\n

In the topsy-turvey Jesus program
\nmaybe this isn\u2019t the obvious \u201clast judgment parable\u201d
\na warning to all evildoers that they are going to burn,
\nand instead a warning to Jesus\u2019 followers
\nthat we were not anointed to be weed hackers,
\ncrop judgers,
\nor field cops.<\/p>\n

Instead, we were planted in God\u2019s kingdom of diversity
\nand instructed to live in harmony
\nnot to uproot each other, and instead
\nto share the soil with apparently invasive species,
\neven to embrace the crabgrass.
\nAt base level, I think Jesus was a weed lover<\/p>\n

While this interpretation might verge on the outlandish
\nit appears less so when considering how this tale of two seedlings
\nis deeply rooted in Matthew\u2019s gospel:<\/p>\n