16th Sunday of Ordinary Time – 2026

Holy Spirit Church, Sandy Bay – Saturday & Sunday (all Masses)

If you have been to the Cathedral or viewed Masses from there, I always begin by saying “Welcome.” So, welcome to parishioners and visitors to this Mass.

A few Sundays ago, in the Gospel, we heard Jesus pray, “I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children.” We have also heard him say, “Let the little children come to me, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of heaven belongs.”

This week and next week, Jesus teaches us about the Kingdom through a series of parables. Today the Kingdom is like a farmer who sowed good seed in his field. It is like a mustard seed that a man planted. It is like the yeast a woman mixed into flour until the whole batch was leavened.

At first glance, these seem like simple country stories. Yet they reveal something profound about the way God works. They are all about growing! Seed in the field grows, the mustard seed grows and yeast grows in the dough. God/Jesus wants his mission to grow.

Circling back to the Gospel two Sundays ago, which I noted at the beginning, there is something about children that adults sometimes lose. Children have an extraordinary capacity to let go and let grow. Unless they have been deeply hurt, they quarrel, make up, and begin again. They allow one another to grow. They are patient with each other’s shortcomings. Given good guidance, they mature together.

Adults are often different.

We become impatient. We can be quick to judge another person’s motives. We carry old hurts longer than we should. We become convinced that our view of a situation is the only possible one.

Jesus knows that temptation. That is why, when the servants discover weeds among the wheat, they immediately ask, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”

The answer surprises them.

“No,” says Jesus “because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest.”

That is not weakness.

It is wisdom.

Anyone who has spent time in a garden knows that appearances can deceive. A plant that seems insignificant today may become the strongest in the garden. Another that promises much may never bear fruit. Growth takes time.

If Jesus were telling this parable today, he might simply point to the label on a bottle of weed killer from the big green store in Glenorchy. It warns us to keep it away from plants that we wish to preserve because they will be destroyed together with the weeds. Sometimes the pursuit of perfection destroys the very life we hope to protect.

To promote life, we have to tolerate imperfection.

To help people flourish, gentleness and patience are indispensable.

That is precisely what the first reading tells us about God.

The Book of Wisdom says something quite remarkable:

“your justice has its source in strength.”

Human beings often think strength means getting our own way. God reveals something entirely different.

“Disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement.”

God possesses all power, yet he governs with gentleness. He is patient. He allows room for repentance. He allows room for growth.

Then comes the line that should stay with us throughout the week:

“By acting thus, you have taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous must be kindly.”

That is how God treats us.

That is how he asks us to treat one another.

This simple parable contains a wisdom we can revisit at every stage of our lives. Be patient with the imperfections of others. Allow people the space to grow. Leave final judgement to God.

There is another little lesson hidden there as well.

Sometimes we carry an old grievance for years. We imagine that Hector or Susan deliberately wounded us. We replay the incident over and over again until it becomes part of our story.

Yet when we hand that burden over to God, we should remember that God sees into Hector’s heart as well as ours. He sees Susan’s heart as well as ours. What we interpreted as deliberate may have been entirely innocent. What we have carried as a burden for years may never have been intended at all.

God alone knows every heart.

That should make us slower in judgement and quicker in forgiveness.

It echoes the prayer Jesus taught:

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

The second reading takes us one step further.

Saint Paul reminds us that there are moments when we simply do not know how to pray. We cannot even find the words.

It is often in moments of vulnerability that prayer is at its deepest.

Saint Paul tells us that when words fail, “the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words.”

The Holy Spirit seems to welcome those cracks in the armour of our self-reliance. Through them he enters to lighten our burdens.

Did we not hear Jesus say only a few Sundays ago:

“Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest.”

The Kingdom of Heaven grows in people who know they need God.

It grows in those who are patient enough to let grace do its work.

Every parish, every family and every one of us is a field where wheat and weeds grow together. None of us is finished. God is still at work in every heart.

Most Rev. Anthony J. Ireland
Archbishop of Hobart
18 & 19 July 2026