Matthew 13:24-30
Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds: "The Kingdom of heaven my be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have all the weeds come from? He answered, 'An enemy has dome this.' His slaves said to him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' He replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into my barn."'"
The Gospel of the Lord.
The weed in the parable was darnel, a plant that has a resemblance to wheat. Evil takes care to look like good. If everything evil looked evil, our life would have wonderful clarity, but alas! it isn't so.
Our world today pays incredibly detailed attention to image: it’s the age of the image, almost to the point of discarding substance.
The parable summons us to careful discernment. It is while we are asleep spiritually that the devil sows tares among the wheat, said an ancient writer.
However, we can be too clear at times – clearer than truth and love. We can imagine that the distinction between wheat and tares is settled, and of course we think of ourselves as the wheat. So all Catholics are going to hell; or all non-Catholics, depending on which group you belong to. St Augustine wrote his wise words on this subject: “Let the one who is wheat persevere until the harvest; let those who are weeds be changed into wheat. There is this difference between people and real grain or weeds: what was grain in the field is grain and what were weeds are weeds. But in the Lord’s field, which is the Church, at times what was grain turns into weeds, and at times what were weeds turn into grain; and no one knows what they will be tomorrow.”
Posted by Daniel Murphy at 4:29 PM
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