Allocution by S.E.R. Cardinal Juan de la Caridad García
An affectionate greeting to all who hear this gospel according to Saint Matthew, chapter 13, verses 24 to 43, which is read this Sunday, July 19, in all the Catholic churches of the world.
…
Tares are a weed that looks like wheat and can be confused with it. It is something like rice that looks like rice and can be confused with it. For the good sowing to bear fruit, these bad weeds must be uprooted.
Evil can also sneak into our person and be confused with good. If many steal, why don’t I steal? If many are unfaithful to their promises, why do I have to be faithful? If many lie, why not me? If many good people don’t go to mass on Sunday, why do I have to go? Each of us has to examine our life and see how it is going. The Church is wise and proposes to us every night the examination of conscience.
The examination of conscience asks us: Have I lived the ten commandments today? Have I practiced the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in my home and in my neighborhood? Have I been faithful to my promises of baptism, confirmation, and marriage?
If there has been bad grass in my heart, I ask for forgiveness because God never tires of forgiving. And now we all express our regret for the bad weed that has been in our person:
I CONFESS like this, without hesitation and without detours,
BEFORE GOD ALMIGHTY,
before which there is nothing hidden.
AND BEFORE YOU, BROTHERS,
to whom I am also guilty and responsible,
THAT I HAVE SINNED A LOT, just as it sounds: that I am worse than I seem and when they judge me badly they fall short, because I have sinned in every possible way:
OF THOUGHT, WORD, WORK AND OMISSION
and I don’t blame anyone because it has always been
FOR MY FAULT, FOR MY FAULT, FOR MY GREAT FAULT But I am sincerely sorry, so much so that I am going to make amends for my sins as soon as possible and in the fullest way possible.
Now, I see that I need all the goodness of God to deserve forgiveness and all his strength to rebuild my life.
THAT’S WHY I PRAY TO HOLY MARY ALWAYS VIRGIN, TO THE ANGELS, TO THE SAINTS AND TO YOU, BROTHERS, TO PRAY FOR ME BEFORE GOD, OUR LORD.
(Song)
The devil is very happy when you think that you cannot remove your evil, your bad weed, nor from your children, grandchildren and relatives. No matter how bad a person is, deep down they have a lot of goodness.
The marabou is a very bad plant, difficult to exterminate but at the same time it enriches and makes the land fertile. With the marabou removed, the land produces good crops.
Those who dig wells find large stones that are seemingly impossible to drill and cross. But they insist because they know that beneath that hard stone there are abundant springs of underground water.
The hearts of many bad people are like this. On the outside evil, on the inside springs of goodness. You just have to root out evil and goodness will emerge. We present in prayer the people full of evil that we know and we ask the Virgin, as a Mother who is of good and bad, to help us so that we can help all mothers to remove evil from their children.
We present these mothers and their children to the Virgin, Mother of all:
God save you Maria…
(Song)
The philosopher Socrates, born in Athens in 470 BC, asked questions so that his listeners could find the answers themselves. Socrates today asks each of us some questions.
It is said that someone once said to Socrates, that great philosopher of ancient Greece.
-Listen Socrates, what I have to tell you…
-Wait a moment, Socrates tells him. Did you put what you want to tell me through the three strainers?
-Three strainers?
-Yes, friend, three strainers! Let me see if what you want to tell me passes through all three sieves. The first sieve is Truth. Did you check if everything you want to tell me is true?
-I didn’t check it, but people say it.
-But surely you verified it with the second sieve, which is Kindness. What you want to tell me, since it is not proven to be true at least, is it good?
-Well? No, not that, on the contrary…
-So, we are going to use the third strainer again. Since what you want to tell you don’t know if it’s true and it’s not good, tell me: is it absolutely necessary for you to tell me what makes you so upset?
-No, it is not exactly necessary.
-So, Socrates tells him, if what you want to tell does not meet the three conditions of being True, being Good and being Necessary. Bury him and don’t make him a burden to you or me!
Let us remove the weeds of lies that want to drown the truth, let us remove the weeds of evil that want to drown goodness, let us remove the weeds of gossip and unnecessary comments that destroy happiness.
(Song)
The second part of today’s gospel tells us about the mustard seed that is so small that you can barely hold it between your fingers and when it grows the bush is so tall that birds nest in its branches.
God likes to work like this. Our life without laboratories emerged from the love of our parents. Countless fruits come from a small seed.
This is the Kingdom of heaven. A piece of advice transforms a person, a seemingly insignificant act of affection changes the sadness and discouragement of those who are dejected. A mass turns bread and wine into the Body of Christ, fills us with peace and hope, transforms us, takes us out of the grave of negligence and leads us to hope.
A regular mass attendee wrote to the editor of a newspaper complaining that it made no sense to go to mass every Sunday.
“I have been going for 30 years now,” he wrote. And during this time I will have heard about 3 thousand sermons. But, I swear on my life, I don’t remember a single one of them. Therefore, I think I am wasting my time and the priests too giving sermons.”
Thus began a controversy in the Letters to the Editor column, to the delight of the editor himself. The same controversy continued for several weeks until someone wrote the following:
“I’ve been married for 30 years now. During all this time my wife must have prepared 32 thousand meals. And I swear, for the life of me, I don’t remember a single menu from any of them. But I do know this: They all fed me and gave me the strength I needed to do my job. If my wife hadn’t prepared them for me, I would be physically dead today.
In the same way, if I had not gone to Church on Sundays to feed myself, I would be spiritually dead today.”
Thank God for our material and spiritual food!
(Song)
To all those who live in our house, to all the members of the family, to all the neighbors and friends, to all the enemies and those who have harmed us, we place them in the hands of God our Father who loves us and desires our greater happiness.
We do this by praying the prayer that Jesus Christ taught us, the Lord’s Prayer:
Our father…
And the blessing of Almighty God who created us to constitute a beautiful family, the blessing of Jesus Christ, the path by which no one has ever been lost and the blessing of the Holy Spirit who can bring our beautiful dreams to fulfillment, descend upon you, upon you. your projects and dreams and remain forever. Amen.
(Song)