15th Sunday in Ordinary Time_A

An Aesop’s fable: One winter a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. "Oh," cried the Farmer with his last breath, "I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel." If God created everything good, then why are there evil in this world? Truly God created everything good. When it comes to human being however, one is endowed with intelligence to know what is true and with free will to do what is good. The gift of intelligence and free will is good. But it is on how one uses his/her intellect and freedom that determines his/her adherence to goodness. In Matthew 13:1-23, the Parable of the Sower may help us understand why evil men exist by way of analogy. 1. A sower went out to sow: the sower sowed the same seeds in various grounds like God who bestowed the seeds of goodness on various races –black man and woman, white man or woman, brown man or woman, etc. Everybody is called by God to remain in His goodness. 2. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them: Even though God bestowed the seeds of goodness to all, still there are those who decided to do nothing with the goodness in them. They know they can be good, yet they choose to stay with evil. They live with the habit of doing evil. In one TV documentary report, there were truck drivers who engaged in sex with minors. After having sex, they gave those two minors some rice as payment. The two minors wondered during the TV interview why those truck drivers still look for sex with them and not just be satisfied with their wives. These truck drivers could choose to be faithful to their wives yet they chose not to. 3. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away: There are those people who choose to be good and appear to be good. But when circumstances change and they are placed in a worst case scenario, they choose doing what is evil. The father of a rape victim, though how good a person he was, planned and executed his plan to kill the rapist. He became a fugitive after he killed the rapist. 4. Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them: There are those people who choose to be good but due to peer pressure or bad companions, commit to do evil. A good boy from the province was sent to study in the City. There he met some friends who forced him to join a fraternity. He learned how to drink and smoke with his new friends. His parents could not imagine that their good son turned to be a son with many vices. 5. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty: There are those people who remain to be good despite the odds, they stay away from bad companions and they choose to do more good deeds. They do more by consistently connecting themselves to God the source of all goodness. They pray constantly. A couple whose daughter was raped and killed by their chauffer chose and decided to forgive the latter for his crime. Their forgiveness is a sign that they are indeed good and they would not waste their goodness just because of the chauffer who brought them one great evil experience. 6. He who has ears, let him hear: This is the “catch-all” caption in this Gospel passage. If only every person would listen to his/her conscience, then he could be guided accordingly to choose and act for what is good. Nevertheless, no one is good unless he/she is in communion with God, the one who created all that is good. Amen.