Triticum et Zizanium

Fr. Elias Khalil

Amici, Americani, Compatriotae,

Friends came over to the house this weekend and stayed with us. They with my wife wanted to attend church on Sunday morning, so we went to the 10 am Mass at the South Annex of St. Matthew's Catholic Church. Rev. Elias Khalil, a Maronite Catholic priest from the country of Lebanon, officiated with a Deacon assisting. The Scripture readings for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time included the following:

• God's Characteristics: Wisdom 12:13, 16-19
• Cry for Help: Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16
• Intercession of the Holy Spirit: Romans 8:26-27
• Parable of the Wheat and the Tares: Matthew 13:24-43

Overall the Mass was conducted well. Unfortunately the hymns were quite modernist and gave more recognition to man than God as is typical of Novus Ordo Masses with a liberal progressive congregation. And the Gloria in Excelsis and the Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus were sung to the rhythm of elevator music instead of the old fashion way that exalts God with the passion of resounding praise. The Agnus Dei however was not done too badly. And the homily had a good message: at the end of time God's angels will separate the wheat from the tares. God will judge for it is not within our authority to judge during this time on Earth. This is a lesson which we would all do well to keep in mind, for in today's Church with the infiltration and infestation of modernism and liberalism, it is all too easy to sit in judgment and demand that God remove the heretics and apostates from authority whether in Parish or Diocese or the Vatican itself. God will do that but in God's time, not ours.

The only thing I really objected to in the homily was when Father Khalil described how farmers in the Middle East - particular Israel - would de-weed their fields, pulling up the tares and leaving the wheat; he referred to Israel as Palestine. Of course, since he is an Arab from Lebanon, that is to be expected. But the reality is this: Palestine was an artificial designation which the Romans had given to Judah, northern Israel, and Lebanon from 100 BC to about AD 400. There never were any Palestinian people and there are not any now, merely Arabs (descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham by the Egyptian Hagar, and Esau, first born of Isaac who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge) who need to accept the authority which God promised Abraham over all the land ".....from the Wadi of Egypt to the Great River, the Euphrates" (Genesis 15:18). This promise still stands today because God does not renege on His Word, for St Paul states in Romans 11:1, "I ask, then, has God rejected his people? Of course not!"

In any event, the overall message of the homily was good - God will ensure separation of wheat form tares. The elevator music is however completely unsatisfactory. And Israel still remains in God's promises.

One last thing - I would encourage the reader to study what the Church Fathers have to say about the parable of the wheat and the tares. St. John Chrysostom gave two homilies on this:

• Homily 46
• Homily 47

And St. Augustine gave one homily:

• Sermon 23

Please also see the following at The American Catholic blog:

• Life in a Time of Tares

Let us pay attention to the Church Fathers and not today's modernist, feel-good liberalization of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Faith.

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