My dear friends in Christ, today is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time year A. Last Sunday, Jesus gave a parable of the sower to compare his audience to four kinds of soils where the seeds fell-that seed is the word of God. In the just concluded gospel reading of this liturgy, he gave his audience other parables about the kingdom: the good seed and weed, the mustard seed, and the yeast.
In this homily, my area of concentration will be on the parable about the good seed and the weed. The story about this parable shows that the evil one never rests, he keeps moving like a roaring lion against God elects, looking for someone to confuse, and restrain from growing in holiness and grace. Hence, he sowed weeds among the wheats.
When talking about the kingdom of God, Jesus uses imageries his audience were familiar with and can easily understand. He said, ‘the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came, sowed weeds among the wheat, and left (Mt. 13:24-25)’. Our world is made up of opposites: life and death, fire and water, darkness and light, cold and heat, love and hate etc.
And so, in the gospel passage which contains a strong antithesis like, landlord and servant, seed and darnel, sow and weed out, awake and asleep, tie in bundles and gather into the barn and so on, reveals a sharp tension within the community of believers. Among the Christian communities, there were some unsettling situations about the lifestyle of some members. Many ardent Christians were shocked, and felt scandalized at the presence of hypocrisy and bad elements within the community. And so, the ardent Christians began to ask such question as: Is the Christian fold not a gathering of the saints? How is it that sinners abound in it? Did the Lord not say that his followers should be the light of the world and the salt of the earth? Why is it that some of them are bearing the torch of darkness? In short, why is there evil among the believers?
And so, with the parable of the good seed and weed, St. Mathew responds to the questions mitigating his community. He used this parable to describe the ambiguous nature of the kingdom of God present in the heart of every man and woman. It is a parable that gives a clear picture of the pilgrim church in its strength and weakness. It reminds us about the two sides of the coin (good and evil) present in each person’s heart.
By sowing the weed among the wheat, the devil had two intentions-either to suffocate the wheat or lure the landlord and his servants into the temptation of getting angry and uproot the weed, and in doing so, uproot some wheat as well. It says, “sir,… do you want us to go and pull the weeds? No, he answered because as you gather the weed you might pull up some wheat along with them (Mt. 13: 27-29)? In this parable, Jesus unveiled for us the overwhelming patience of God for the entire humanity. Also, it reminds us how he prevails against the devil at any given moment.
And so, the life of the church is like a field cultivated by the great farmer with the good seed of grace. The evil one is a great imitator whose work it is to tactfully mix error with truth and deftly falsify God’s masterpiece in order to create confusion and deceit. That is why he planted the weed among the good seed, a weed similar in appearance and characteristic to wheat. The church is a mixture of good and bad people, honest and dishonest, obedient and disobedient members. God in his infinite love and mercy patiently allows all to be until the harvest time. It is the will of God that sinners should repent and live, that is, live in perfect union with God. The message for us in this parable is very clear. First, it reminds us that the human person can never be changed through violence. Second, we are called to develop the humble virtue of perseverance. It is a virtue that allows other virtues to grow in us. We need it more than ever for positive transformation of the human heart and the world. The first reading describes God as patient, lenient and kind in dealing with sinners. Yet, His patience and exhortation: “let them both grow till the harvest…” does not imply that we should stand and remain indifferent in the presence of evils among us. It is not an excuse to take God’s mercy for granted. Active vigilance and steadfastness in the cultivation of wheat are necessary steps to frustrate the devil. There is always a struggle between good and evil.