20260728 Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

[그리움하나]

(Jer 14:17–22; Mt 13:36–43): Let the Good Love Deeply Engraved in Your Soul Shine Forth

Praise be to Jesus Christ.

Today's Word of the Lord gently invites us to gaze quietly upon the “field” of our hearts and lives.

In Jeremiah 14:17, 20, and 21, the prophet grieves before the reality of a wounded and broken people, confessing: “Let my eyes shed tears night and day, without ceasing... We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness... we have sinned against you. For your name’s sake do not spurn us... remember your covenant with us, and do not break it.” He places their darkness and fragility honestly before God. For it is precisely when we acknowledge our own helplessness that room is created for the Lord's mercy to enter.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus lovingly explains the Parable of the Weeds.

Just as an enemy came and sowed weeds in a field where good seed had been sown, the world we live in—and the field of our own souls—is a complex space where good and evil coexist. Let us quietly look into the field of our souls. There, the good seeds of love, forgiveness, and sacrifice, planted by God Himself, are sown. Yet, at the same time, the weeds of hatred, jealousy, and selfishness sprout almost unnoticed. At times, we waver between the two and feel disappointed or troubled by our internal weakness, which so easily leans toward evil rather than good.

However, today the Lord tells us that He does not pull up the weeds right away out of His gentle and tender love, fearing that the precious wheat might be uprooted with them. God does not judge us immediately upon seeing our frailty or dark places; rather, He waits for us endlessly until we bring forth a good influence.

Following God’s merciful patience, instead of pouring our energy into self-reproach or blaming others while being consumed by the weeds, may we focus on the good seed already dwelling within us. Let us constantly water this God-given goodness through prayer and bathe it in the sunlight of His Word.

Today, a warm word spoken in our daily lives, an embrace of understanding toward someone, or a small but sincere act of forgiveness—these are the very processes that nurture the hidden good influence within us. As the goodness inside us grows and takes deep root, the weeds of darkness and evil naturally lose their power.

Dear brothers and sisters, we are not children of God because we are perfect, but we are loved by God because of our heart’s desire to choose goodness even amid our weakness. In the midst of our soul's inclinations, let us turn fully toward the light of the Lord.

When we, like the prophet Jeremiah, fully acknowledge our weakness and implore the Lord’s mercy, and when we attentively tend to the good seed planted within us as Jesus teaches, we will ultimately bear abundant fruits of beautiful love rather than evil.

I pray with a warm heart that today, each of us may move one step closer to the “life of the righteous,” who will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Amen.