SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

St. Matthew 13:24-30

Dear Friends. I had my introduction into this parable of the weeds and the wheat when I was a sophomore in high school. It was the time of the McCarthy hearings on TV. The politics of the day were about the infiltration of Communists into our government and society. I was very interested in this.

At first, it was very confusing because there were two items that were very clear in my world. Communists were as bad as you could get and Catholics were good. As the TV drama evolved, I slowly had to change. Even though Senator McCarthy was against the Communists and he was a Catholic, I began to realize he was in the wrong. Eventually, he was censored by the Senate, one of only three such condemnations in the history of our country.

This was the beginning of a lifetime journey where the clear black and white of my world had to give way to an acceptance of the grey of a complex world.

Today’s parable of the weeds and the wheat, like all the parables, speaks to us of the coming of God’s Kingdom, Jesus’ main message. As we enter into the parable we begin to learn how we experience the presence and action of God in our daily life. It is clear God is in charge of the harvest. We tend to take over the job. Most of us have at least a Master’s degree in determining the good guys from the bad guys. Jesus would rather that we let the Father take on that task. That is why a turned cheek is much more in tune with Jesus’ message than a clenched fist.

Among other things, this parable is calling us to an ever expanding vision of including and accepting others. Our heart is a field with plenty of weeds that incline us to divide and separate and isolate. The parable of the weeds and the wheat opens up the mystery of the justice and mercy of God.

If I just take the topics of race, sexual orientation and respect for women I can see a lifetime of blindness, ignorance, open hostility and profound prejudice ebbing and flowing to a very painful evolution of change. The coming of the Kingdom has slowly challenged me to grow in tolerance, trust and patience. Self knowledge only comes with this openness to God’s call to change. Self knowledge will always reveal a heart blossoming with a full harvest of the weeds and the wheat. The struggle will continue to the end.

St. Teresa of Avila had a very gifted and graced understanding of herself. Even though she eventually would become recognized as a Doctor of the Church and a famous Carmelite saint, she clearly saw her weeds. She knew it was all a gift of God. So she said often, the story of her life was ultimately the story of God’s mercy. She truly had tolerance for others, trust in God and patience with herself. She understood, as we need to understand today, that God’s Kingdom is coming and with it comes the love and mercy and justice we see revealed in Jesus that calls us to be the fruitful harvest.