Exodus 33:7-11; 34:5-9, 28 / Matthew 13:36-43 (2015 / 2019)
Moses is certainly one of the great figures in the Bible who can say that he knew how God has protected him.
Throughout his life, from the time as a baby, to his fleeing from Pharoah, and the returning to Egypt to lead his people out of slavery, Moses knew how God's hand was protecting him.
It was through all this, that he came to know God as a God of mercy and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.
And when the Israelites sinned against God and in spite of the evil that Moses saw the Israelites committed, yet Moses turned to God to beg for forgiveness and mercy for his people.
The situations that we find ourselves in are not that different from that of Moses.
We are confronted by our own sinfulness, the sinfulness of others, and on the larger scale, the sinfulness of the world.
Or like how the gospel puts it, we see more darnel, we see more weeds than wheat.
But we are reminded that we must not let evil overcome us. Instead we must conquer evil with good.
So let us not be discouraged with our acts of charity. We shall reap when the time comes, as long as we persevere in our good deeds.
Because God, from whom all good flows, will never allow the good that we do, to be destroyed by evil.
May St. Joachim and St. Anne pray for us to be faithful to God always.