Once again, it’s back to the Gospel. This time
we’ll take a look at one of Jesus’ Kingdom of Heaven parables in the Gospel
According to Matthew. Our reading actually includes several of these parables,
but today we’ll focus only on the first, the parable of the wheat and the
weeds. I realize Jesus doesn’t specify that the farmer in the parable is
growing wheat, but I’ve always like the alliteration of the words, “wheat and
weeds,” so I’ll continue to make that assumption.
Before we begin our reflection, then, please
open your Bible, turn to Chapter 13 of Matthew and read Matthew 13:24-43.
I’ve included the passage on Page 5.
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How many sinners do we have out there? Okay, you
all know the answer to that one: we’re all sinners, even those who think
they’re saints. In fact, this parable of the wheat and the weeds was aimed
particularly at sinners who sometimes forget they’re sinners.
Notice that our Gospel passage ends with Jesus
saying, “Whoever has ears ought to hear” [Mt 13:43]. I suppose He’s
telling us: “Listen up! What I have to say about all this sinfulness and
saintliness is pretty important stuff.” So, let’s take a closer look at this
parable and at Jesus’ explanation of it. Perhaps, then, we can correct our own inflated
opinions of ourselves.
First of all, let’s you and I take on the role
of one of the slaves. Now it’s not easy being a slave, always having to do what
you’re told, even when you don’t understand or don’t agree with the master and
his orders. But, in this instance, even though we’re slaves, we’re fortunate to
have a good and caring master, one who even allows us to question what we don’t
understand.
Master,
did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from? [Mt 13:27]
The master explains that his enemy has tried to
sabotage His work by planting weeds, by seeding the field with that which will damage
the wheat and lessen the harvest.
Jesus, opening up the parable for the disciples,
tells them:
He
who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the
children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the
enemy who sows them is the devil [Mt 13:37-38].
…a pretty straightforward explanation, isn’t
it? And the slaves, presumably, are the disciples (that’s us), those who must
do the work of the master. Being good disciples, they want to do what they
believe is best. Unlike those evil sinners, the saintly sinners want to make
things right. They want to go out into the field right away and just rip out all
those weeds, along with anything else that might get in the way.
So, there we are, you and I, God’s saintly,
sinful slaves, telling Him to turn us loose and we’ll solve all His problems. Let
us do it now! We’re the good guys, the good and decent people; we’re the
righteous ones; we’re the ones with ears to hear.
Just look at all those weeds! What did Jesus
call them? “Children of the evil one” [Mt 13:38]. You see them in the
newspapers, on the web, and on TV. Why, it’s downright embarrassing. Their
conduct, their ethics, their morality could hardly be any lower. And they’re
out there committing all these shameful sins right there in front of God and
everyone, setting a horrible example to the rest of us. There’s certainly no
room for people like that in His Church. And look at the world. The weeds are
taking over. Evil’s on a rampage. This can’t be the kind of world God wants. We
have to do something!
It's tempting, isn't it, sometimes dangerously
and tragically so, to desire a perfect world, to think that, if humanity got
its act together, we could eradicate evil and create a world without
imperfections. At least that’s what the politicians and the ideologues tell us.
How ironic that our very imperfections cause us to think this way. And so, we
end up turning the imperfect into the evil, while we hide all the real evils
behind curtains of political and ideological correctness.
Abort the unwanted, purge the inconvenient,
eliminate the undesirables, execute the criminals, cleanse the world of everything
and everyone that’s imperfect. These, along with so many others, are the
world’s solutions; they’re certainly not God’s.
God’s will is so very different, His ways so
far from ours. How did He put it to Isaiah:
For
my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways – oracle of the
Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways, my thoughts higher than your thoughts [Is 55:8-9].
In His divine wisdom He orders us to refrain
from judging and purging, for He has a different plan for the salvation of
humanity. He tells us to do something that from a human perspective seems downright
foolish, but He insists.
“No weeding,” He orders, “not now. I’ll wait
instead for the harvest, and then I’ll do the separating, not you. I will
decide between wheat and weeds.”
“But there are so many weeds in the world
today,” we complain, “so much evil, right here, right now — can’t we do something;
can’t we do anything?”
And God says, “Yes, first of all, you can trust
in Me. And you can do something else, but not the something you’d like to do,
not the human something. I will judge,” He tells us, “because only I can see
into the heart of each man and woman, only I can ensure a perfect yield from
the harvest.”
We’ve been given a different job. “Go make
disciples of all nations” [Mt 28:19], He commanded his disciples, which
includes you and me. Until the harvest time we are to preach the gospel of
repentance to the world…and to ourselves. And that, brothers and sisters, is
hard for us to take. Why can’t we do some of that judging, that purging? Aren’t
we the good ones, the holy ones?
Okay, maybe we’re not always that good or that
holy. Maybe we don’t spend very much time immersed in God’s Word or deepening
our prayer life – assuming we even have a prayer life. But we’re busy people
and t’s hard work trying to get ahead in this world.
Maybe our faith isn’t always as alive and
vibrant as it should be. Maybe our children and grandchildren, our neighbors
and friends, haven’t always seen our faith witnessed in the way we live. Maybe
we don’t spend much time and effort feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, welcoming
the stranger, caring for and visiting the ill and the imprisoned. After all, I’ve
got problems too. And I take responsibility for them; why can’t they?
Maybe we occasionally ignore those Church
teachings we don’t agree with, those teachings on faith and morals and justice that
are downright inconvenient. Oh, but we do attend Mass every week…well, most
weeks anyway. That must count for something.
Yes, Jesus’ teaching can be a real stumbling
block for us, can’t it? Much better and far more comforting to think there are
just two kinds of people in the world: the real sinners – you know, the ones
you see on the covers of the supermarket tabloids – and the rest of us, those
of us who hardly sin at all, or whose sins are small. The bad and the pretty good.
The outsiders – that’s them – and the insiders – that’s us. Those who have ears
to hear and those who just refuse to listen. Those who will make it to heaven
and those who won’t.
Yes, it’s easy to begin to think that way. And
it’s a mistake that’s been around a long time. Back in the 4th Century there
was a widespread heresy called Donatism that claimed the good seed in this
parable referred to the members of the Church, and so by definition there could
be no weeds, no sinners, in the Church. They believed the Church could be
composed only of good people; the rest of the world was simply evil. They were
a bit like the Pharisees of Jesus’ time.
It took a St. Augustine to correct them,
explaining that neither humanity nor the Church can be divided into children of
light and children of darkness. We still hear echoes of this ancient heresy
among some Christian groups who preach a kind of exclusivity: “Are you saved?
If you’re one of us, you’re OK...otherwise…well, sorry but you’re condemned.”
St. Augustine, of course, was right. We all
have both light and darkness within us – the wheat and the weeds growing
together. The Church, you see, is really a kind of hospital, where we can be
spiritually healed and made ready for our eternal journey. It’s a place where
sinners grow and change by God's grace. That growth in grace may be agonizingly
slow, like grain hidden in the soil, waiting to be watered, waiting to be
nourished. But in its slowness, it also imitates the patience of God. For Jesus
teaches that there’s still time, there’s always time, up until the very last
moment of our lives.
Of course, for those of us in the winter of our
lives, it makes sense to heed the words of St. Paul:
I
tell you, brothers, the time is running out…for the world in its present form
is passing away”
[1 Cor 7:29,31].
Just as our lives, too, are passing away.
I recall reading an article about a young gang
member from a broken family — no role models, no education, no opportunities,
no hope, no future. One fateful day, in a fit of uncontrolled rage, he fatally
stabbed his social worker, the one person who was trying to help him. Convicted
of murder, he was sent to prison for life. Now middle-aged, he’s repented, sought
forgiveness from his victim’s family, finished college, and was baptized and
confirmed. He’ll remain in prison because that’s where man’s justice will keep
him. But today he’s nothing like the violent young man he once was and can no
longer be counted among the weeds. Who would have predicted this outcome?
Nobody but Jesus Himself.
As Paul reminds us, the Lord turns all things
to good for those who love Him [Rom 8:28]. And so, brothers and sisters,
there’s good news for us in this Gospel — really good news. We won’t be struck
by lightning the moment we sin, for God responds patiently and lovingly.
How blessed we are that we can look back,
recognize our past sinfulness, and be forgiven in the sacrament of
Reconciliation.
How blessed we are that God is patient, that He
gives us time to change, time to make amends.
If we’re truly honest with ourselves and with
God, most of us will admit that we were once weeds, and some of us that we’re
still weeds. We try to hide our secrets, our sinfulness, because we’re ashamed
of what we’ve done. We struggle to trust others because we can hardly trust
ourselves. We play games with the truth, and too easily separate our words from
our actions. And there are days when we slip back into our weed-like behavior.
The result, quite simply, is that it’s hard to tell the wheat from the weeds.
If you look carefully, you can find the weeds
in yourself and in others. And so, we remain sinners living among sinners. But
the time will come when the sorting of the weeds from the wheat will be
absolute, decisive, and final. Make no mistake about it: We will all be judged.
But that judgment belongs to the master alone, not to the servants. God is in
charge, not us, and His judgment is nothing at all like ours -- something for
which we should be especially grateful. God is both just and merciful. He’s
eager to forgive and to provide us with the grace we need to overcome our
sinfulness and do His will in the world. We need only ask. Yes, He’s willing to
wait for our repentance, to wait until the very last moment, for His patience is
almost inexhaustible. And we can thank God for that.
Praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
