.: † " Explain to us the.... .."

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

† " Explain to us the.... .."

†

Saint Quote:

Whenever anything disagreeable or displeasing happens to you, remember Christ crucified and be silent. St. John of the Cross

Today's Meditation:

“This world is filled with many vulgar and dishonorable things that will claw and tear at your Christian purity if you allow them to. Don’t let them! Seek instead the things of God. He will purify you and free you from your slavery to profane and inconsequential things.”
—Patrick Madrid, p. 1

Daily Verse

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:4-5

EWTN Daily Saint

Sts. Nazarius and Celsus

Patron Saint of: Altar servers, youth, and religious educators
Feast Day: July 28

St. Nazarius and St. Celsus (1st c.) were early Christian martyrs, but nothing else is known with certainty about their lives or the time they lived, other than that they were put to death for their Christian faith in Milan, Italy, perhaps during the persecution of the Emperor Nero. What we know about these saints came to us from St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. In 395 A.D. St. Ambrose discovered the body of St. Nazarius, with severed head, along with a vial of his blood still as fresh as the day it was spilled, in a garden outside the city gates. St. Ambrose carried the body in procession to bury in the city’s Basilica of the Apostles. In the same garden he also discovered the body of St. Celsus, and likewise had the body taken to the same basilica. Miracles occurred in the church at the presence of the relics of these two holy martyrs. According to one account, St. Nazarius was the son of St. Perpetua, the child she bore just prior being executed for her faith. Celsus was a youth given to the care of St. Nazarius by the boy’s mother, who desired for the saint to teach her son the Christian faith. The two traveled and preached the Gospel together zealously before being tortured and executed in Milan. They share a feast day on July 28th.

Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 402

Reading 1

Jeremiah 14:17-22

Let my eyes stream with tears

day and night, without rest,

Over the great destruction which overwhelms

the virgin daughter of my people,

over her incurable wound.

If I walk out into the field,

look! those slain by the sword;

If I enter the city,

look! those consumed by hunger.

Even the prophet and the priest

forage in a land they know not.

Have you cast Judah off completely?

Is Zion loathsome to you?

Why have you struck us a blow

that cannot be healed?

We wait for peace, to no avail;

for a time of healing, but terror comes instead.

We recognize, O LORD, our wickedness,

the guilt of our fathers;

that we have sinned against you.

For your name's sake spurn us not,

disgrace not the throne of your glory;

remember your covenant with us, and break it not.

Among the nations' idols is there any that gives rain?

Or can the mere heavens send showers?

Is it not you alone, O LORD,

our God, to whom we look?

You alone have done all these things.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 79:8, 9, 11 and 13

R. (9) For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

Remember not against us the iniquities of the past;

may your compassion quickly come to us,

for we are brought very low.

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

Help us, O God our savior,

because of the glory of your name;

Deliver us and pardon our sins

for your name's sake.

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

Let the prisoners' sighing come before you;

with your great power free those doomed to death.

Then we, your people and the sheep of your pasture,

will give thanks to you forever;

through all generations we will declare your praise.

R. For the glory of your name, O Lord, deliver us.

Alleluia

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower;

all who come to him will live for ever.

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel

Matthew 13:36-43

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."

Praise to You Oh Lord Jesus Christ!

From Word Among Us WAU.org

Daily Meditation: Matthew 13:36-43

Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. (Matthew 13:36)

In today’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to explain his parable of the weeds and the grain growing in the same field. The weeds were probably darnel, a plant nearly indistinguishable from wheat until the grain emerges. So the farmer allowed both weeds and wheat to grow to maturity before pulling out the weeds so that he wouldn’t end up pulling up some of the wheat by mistake. He waited for harvest, when there was a better chance of distinguishing between the two.

Explaining the parable, Jesus proclaims that he, the Son of Man, is the Sower of good seed, which represents his disciples. He likens the harvest to the final judgment, when the angels will separate evildoers from the children of the kingdom. They will face punishment, while “the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father” (Mattthew 13:43).

It could be tempting to see ourselves as the wheat and view other people as weeds. It’s true that even in the Church, there is both light and darkness. But it would be a mistake to think it would be better—or easier—if all evil and all evildoers were removed from the Church.

St. Augustine argued against this kind of thinking by leaders who wanted to exclude people who had renounced their faith under persecution. They believed the Church should consist only of perfectly holy people. Augustine disagreed, saying that the Church will remain a corpus permixtum, a “mixed body,” with good and bad together, until the final judgment. Perhaps recalling his own sinful past, Augustine urged, “They who today are tares, may tomorrow be wheat” (Sermon 23).

Jesus and Augustine are telling us there is always hope! God wants all people to know his salvation. His patience is meant to lead everyone to repentance (Romans 2:4). For now, our Church is a mixture. That’s why our best strategy is to leave the weeding to God. We can also ask the Lord to search our own hearts and help us uproot our sins. And we can pray that all darkness would be turned back and that everyone we know would turn to God and shine like the sun at the end of time.

“Lord Jesus, purify my heart today.”

Jeremiah 14:17-22

Psalm 79:8-9, 11, 13

Reflections with Brother Adrian:

From today's Holy Gospel:

"... 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. .... ”

From Bishop Barron:

"Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus explains the parable of the weeds among the wheat. God’s word creates the Church, the community of those who strive to build up the kingdom. But this Church is never absolutely pure and untrammeled, for God’s ways are opposed by a spiritual power, an enemy. His task is to sow weeds among the wheat—clandestinely, quietly, unobtrusively.
This sort of coming together of good and evil is to be expected. The Church will always be a place of saints and sinners, and the sinners will often look like saints. The enemy of the Church, who never rests, ensures it.
Vigilance in regards to evil is necessary in a fallen world, yet we must be wary of a zeal that, in its passion for setting things right, comes to believe that evil can be dealt with by destroying what is good.
In the midst of a fallen world, what is expected of us is that we live in hope that at the end, at harvest time, the Master will separate the good from the bad.” End quote.

From Roberto Juarez:

"Jesus ends with a wonderful promise: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father's kingdom." It doesn't just say they'll be happy. He says they will shine. Holiness does not extinguish the personality. It makes it shine. Each saint reflects the light of Christ in a unique way. That is also our vocation. We are not called simply to avoid evil. We are called to radiate good. To be light in the midst of the world.
This parable invites us to be patient not only with others, but also with ourselves. Sometimes we despair because we don't change as quickly as we would like. The Lord continues to work in our hearts. Like a farmer, with delicacy, without violence, with perseverance. The important thing is not to stop collaborating with his grace.

Today's Gospel invites us to live with a double attitude. On the one hand, with confidence, because God is still the owner of the field and evil will not have the last word. On the other, with responsibility, because we are called to let the good seed of the Gospel grow every day in our hearts. Let's not judge others rashly. Let us be patient as God is patient with us. And let us work every day so that our lives may produce the fruit of the good wheat: firm faith, persevering hope and concrete charity.
Let us ask the Lord, in this Eucharist, to pluck from our hearts every weed of selfishness, resentment and sin. May he grant us the patience to wait for his times. And when the final harvest comes, may we find ourselves among those of whom Jesus joyfully says: "The righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father." end quote.

Seeds and weeds.
You know we are made of dirt, and water.
You know plants are grow in dirt and watered.
And by now, you should know that we humans are planted with seeds in our hearts.
The seed here is the Word of God and Christ has planted that seed in your heart.
Now, who does the watering?

Who helps nurture that seed to grow?
Have you exposed it to light, and watered it?
Right now, you are watering it, by reading and hearing this.
And to expose it to light, we need to get to the Son.
Adoration. Prayer. Looking to Him at every moment no matter if it is a good moment or a bad moment.

If our faces look up to the Heavens, He sees already our needs.
And are you praying that you no longer have weeds?
How many of us are praying that God may do His will in us and usher in Christ to the world?
Mother Mary did so. And then, the incarnation. The Word becomes true flesh.
The same happens in the Holy Eucharist.

How?
In confession, we pray the bad weeds to go away.
Then we pray, in penance, we present ourselves to the Lord after the priest sends us forth cleansed and ready for light and water, God's grace and love.
This comes from His heart, from the cross.
And so, we pray for His will to be done when He enters our body of dirt, and the fruit of God's Kingdom becomes a living organism. A vine that grows and grows. And Christ gives life to the world.

And then, we give fruit, and fruit gives seeds to the world....Christ alive through us doing His holy will.
And the world will smell less like foul weeds, and more like orchids and roses, filling the place where you walk, and the flock begins to eat of the good stuff, and sharing the word as an offshoot of this reality.

We, Catholics, must show Christians how to live, because we are the roots of all faith.
We, Christians, must show the world that Christ is the light, the hope, and our salvation.
We take let the seed in our heart. And mind you, it is going to take some hard work...for it is a labor of love. And Sacrifice. Holiness costs something. Turn in the weeds, for this beautiful seed. It is CHRIST!