The Wheat of God

Homily of H.E., Most Rev. Charles John Brown, D.D., Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines

Holy Mass for the Fifth day of Novena in Honor of St. Sharbel Makhlouf

July 19, 2026 | Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our Lady of the Assumption Parish, Asuncion St., Malate, Manila

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

For me as your Apostolic Nuncio, it's always a great joy for me to celebrate Holy Mass here in Our Lady of the Assumption Parish. I'm very grateful to your beloved parish priest, the Rev. Fr. Hans Magdurulang, for having invited me once again to celebrate Mass.

I've come this morning with my two colleagues from the Apostolic Nunciature here on Taft Avenue, Msgr. Giuseppe Trentadue and Msgr. Guilherme De Melo Sanches.

I greet all of you on this wonderful day, this Fifth day of Novena in Honor of St. Sharbel Makhlouf, this wonderful miracle-working saint from Lebanon. Speaking of Lebanon, we have the Honorary Consul of Lebanon here with us, Mr. Joseph F. Assad, who represents Lebanon here in the Philippines. So, we are delighted to have him present, and also the representative of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Raymund G. Toledo. Thank you for coming this morning.

So, we just heard this famous “Parable of the Weeds Among the Wheat” (Matthew 13:24-43). “Weeds” and “wheat”. Then what happened? If we were listening carefully, a farmer sowed good seeds in his field, good wheat seed. Then at night, his enemy came and threw the seeds of weeds into the field. So then, when the plants grew up, you had the wheat and the weeds. You had good plants and you had bad plants. The workers in the farm then came to the owner and said, “Listen, didn't you only sow good seed, wheat seed in your field? Why are all these weeds here also?” The owner says, “An enemy has done this.” Then the workers say, “Well, let's go and pull out. Let's tear up all those weeds. Let's get rid of them right now.”  Then the owner says, “Wait a second. No, no, don't do it yet, because if you pull up the weeds, you might be pulling up the wheat also. Wait till the end, until the harvest time, and then we will do the separation. But let them grow together for the moment.”

Very interesting parable. It's like another parable that Jesus gives us in the Gospel of Saint Matthew, “The kingdom of God is like a net that fishermen threw into the water and caught all kinds of fish. When the net was full, they dragged it to the shore. They sat down and then they sorted the good fish and the bad fish. The good fish they kept in crates. The bad fish they threw away” (Matthew 13:47-50).

This idea of a net with good fish and bad fish. It's like the field with good plants and bad plants. The separation only comes at the end of time. This is an important parable for us as Catholics, because it's a parable about the nature of our Church, the nature of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church is like the field; it's like the net. In this field, we have weeds and wheat at the moment. In this net, we have good fish and bad fish at the moment. The Church, remember, is on our way towards the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God will be fully achieved when we separate the weed from the wheats at the end. Not now. We separate the good fish from the bad fish. That happens at the end when God sends His angels. Then, the Church, which is the people of God, all of us walking together. That's why the synodal image, the idea of a caravan walking together, is so important. The separation only comes at the end of time.

The Church, A Hospital for Sinners, A School for Holiness

Now, all of us know people, maybe even our own families who say, “I don't go to church anymore. Because when I go to church, I look around, I see a lot of hypocrites in church. I see this one over there; he's unfaithful to his wife. I see that one in the back; she was in jail for a while. That one over there; he's corrupt. So, I'm not going to church anymore because a lot of corrupt and hypocritical people there.”

That's a complete misunderstanding of the nature of the Church. The Church is a place where yes, there are weeds and wheat. There are good fish and bad fish, and the separation will only come at the end of time. Our job is not to identify the sins of the others, and even worse, to justify our absence from church, saying, “Oh, I saw a hypocrite in church, therefore I'm not going anymore.” No. We need to continue. We need to purify ourselves first of all.

You know, it's a little bit like someone who wanted to learn to play the violin, and goes and enrolls in a music school to learn to play the violin, and shows up, goes to the music school for his violin lessons, and looks around the school and says, “There's a lot of people here who don't play the violin well at all. They're not good students of the violin in this school. Therefore, I'm not going anymore. I'm not going to learn at this school because there are people here who can't play the violin well.” Well, they're students; they're learning. Same thing in the Church. 

Or it's like saying, “I want to get in shape. I'm going to join a gym. But I went to the gym. I saw there are flabby people there, flabby people, people out of shape. It can't be a good gym if there are people like that there.” That's the same idea people have about the Catholic Church when they say, “Oh, I saw a hypocrite in church. I saw someone who was unfaithful. I saw someone who was a sinner. Therefore, I'm not going anymore.”

This is a complete misunderstanding. The Church is not a club of the perfect. The Church is a place like a hospital where all of us are receiving the therapy of God, the treatment of God, the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus, who comes into us in Holy Eucharist and transforms us, and changes us, and purifies us, and makes us always, always more holy.

So that is why it's not up for us to uproot the weeds from the wheat now in the Church and say, “Oh, you're a sinner; you shouldn't be here.” It's not up for us. It's up for each of us to purify our own hearts by receiving Jesus in the Eucharist with a pure heart, a loving heart, and then allowing that power of Jesus in us to transform our lives.

The Wheat of God

So, we have this idea of the weed and the wheat, the weeds and the wheat; and it's such an important image for us in the Catholic Church. Let's remember, the Church only really, in the end, concentrates on the wheat, the wheat, not on the weeds. We try, all of us, to become the wheat of God, the wheat of God.

In fact, there's a beautiful line from one of the early martyrs of the Church, Saint Ignatius of Antioch. Antioch, which is not far from Lebanon. He was a bishop in the early church. He was captured during the persecution and brought to Rome by Roman soldiers. He was executed, put to death in the Colosseum. In fact, the tradition is Saint Ignatius from Antioch was the first martyr in the Colosseum, torn to pieces by lions in the Colosseum. As he was being brought from Antioch to Rome, he wrote letters. One of the letters he wrote to the people, the Catholics in Rome, where they were bringing him to be martyred in the Colosseum, as traditionally the first martyr, and he said this, “I am the wheat of God. I am the wheat of God. Let me be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts, so that I may be found to be pure bread of Christ.”

So, this idea of him and his holiness being wheat. The Church concentrates on the wheat. We only canonize saints in heaven. What does that mean? We know for certain that certain people are in heaven. We don’t canonize sinners. We don’t say we know for certain that someone is in hell. We don’t say that. We don’t know. We concentrate on the wheat, not on the weeds. We always focus on the good, not on evil. 

Saint Sharbel Makhlouf

Speaking of wheat, we have in front of me this wonderful and incredible miracle-working saint, Saint Sharbel Makhlouf from Lebanon. A Maronite monk and priest, who during his life obtained a huge reputation for holiness and for miracles, and also his ability to unite Christians, Muslims, and Druze in Lebanon.

He died, as all of you know, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1898, that famous year here in the history of the Philippines. Also, your declaration, your proclamation of independence. He died on December 24, 1898. He's known among Lebanese Christians as the “Miracle Monk of Lebanon” because of the many favors that have been obtained through his intercession. He was beatified in 1965 by Saint Pope Paul VI, and then canonized in 1977. So, he's a great example of the wheat of God, the wheat of God, which is miraculous, which is incredible, which all of us should try to become the wheat of God, like Saint Ignatius of Antioch, like Saint Charbel from Lebanon. So that we will do something beautiful for God.

The point is not to concentrate on the sins of others, but to concentrate on our own weaknesses, our own limitations; and ask Jesus to purify us, to sanctify us, to make us holy, to help us overcome our own difficulties. So that we become always more the wheat of God. 

His feast day is on the 24th of July, and that is this coming Friday. I invite you, I remind you, as Father Hans has told us, to go to Manila Cathedral for the Holy Mass, which will conclude at the end of our novena. On the 24th of July, this Friday, which will be celebrated in Manila Cathedral by none other than Cardinal Tagle, who is here from Rome at the moment. He will celebrate the Mass for Saint Charbel.

So, for all of us devotees of Saint Charbel, we say “Thank you to God” for this amazing saint. Thank you, God, for giving us the wheat of God in this wonderful and holy saint. We ask Mama Mary, Our Lady, the Mother of Jesus, to intercede for all of us.

Finally, as representative of Pope Leo XIV, I ask you, remind you, please pray for our Holy Father in Rome, our successor of Peter. Pope Leo is always asking us to pray for him, and we do that in obedience to him.

So, happy fifth day of the novena. We go forward under the watchful eyes of Saint Charbel, miracle working and all holy saints.

God bless you!

Transcribed by Joel V. Ocampo