Recognising the Primacy of God the Father - Pope Benedict XVI

At midday today Benedict XVI appeared at the balcony overlooking the inner courtyard of the Apostolic Palace at Castelgandolfo, to pray the Angelus with faithful gathered there.


Commenting, as he does every Sunday, on that morning's Gospel reading, the Pope explained how the parables are "brief narratives which Jesus uses to announce the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven. Using images and situations taken from everyday life, the Lord wishes to show us the true foundation of all things. He shows us ... the God Who acts, Who enters our daily lives".


Using these narratives, "the divine Master invites us to recognise, first and foremost, the primacy of God the Father. Where He is not present, nothing good can exist. He is a decisive priority in all things. The Kingdom of heaven means, in fact, the lordship of God; in other words, His will must be assumed as the criterion-guide for our existence".


In today's Gospel Jesus compares heaven to a field of wheat, "in order to help us understand that something small and hidden, but possessing an irrepressible life force, is sown within us. Despite all the obstacles, the seed will develop and the fruit ripen, but the fruit will be good only if the terrain of life has been cultivated in accordance with the divine will.


"For this reason", the Pope added, "in the parable of the weeds among the wheat Christ warns us that, after the master had sown his seed, 'while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat'. The meaning of this is that we must be ready to protect the grace we received on the day of Baptism, continuing to nourish faith in the Lord, which prevents evil from taking root".


Finally, the Pope turned his attention to the first reading of this morning's Mass, a passage from the Book of Wisdom underscoring the mercy and power of God. "If, then, we are all children of such a great and good Father", he said, "let us seek to resemble Him. This was the goal Jesus set Himself with His preaching, when He told His hearers: ''Be perfect ... as your heavenly Father is perfect