16th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 Romans 8:26-27 Matthew 13:24-43
Like any good teacher Jesus uses pictures, stories and parables to illustrate the lesson he has for us. Parables are really stories that seem to run parallel to real life situations. Parables urge us to make the comparisons with our own lives and our own world. In the parable of last Sunday’s Gospel we saw Jesus, the sower, sowing seed, the word of God, and we ourselves as the soil receiving the seed, God’s word. Each of us was challenged to ask what type of soil am I? The main parable in today’s gospel reading is also located on the land. The Lord is speaking to farming people but we, non-farmers can get the message too.
We all hate weeds especially if they spoil or seem to spoil our beautiful gardens! Some people say that there is no such thing as ‘weeds’ – only flowers, wild flowers in the wrong place. Often we admire these very ‘weeds’ when we see them growing in the wild. Recently there has been a great move to scatter these wild flower seeds in parts of gardens and parks as we come to appreciate more and more the natural beauty of mother earth.
But the weed, the Darnel, in the parable today, is a particularly difficult weed and it has been planted by the enemy, the devil, as the Lord says.
So, what does this parable say to you and to me and how are we to relate it to our own lives? It seems that we need to recognize the presence of evil and enemies in our world, in our own lives. We, by the grace and choice of God, are the good seeds, the people of the Kingdom of God. The darnel, the weeds, are the enemies of the Kingdom of God, those who constantly criticize, mock and oppose the Church. But the Lord told us to love our enemies and Benjamin Franklin famously said “Love your enemies because they tell you your faults.” And don’t we have very many faults? So, perhaps our enemies have a role to play in helping us to be authentic.
Jesus says ‘don’t pull up the weeds’. Co-exist! Co-existing means being tolerant, forgiving and, above all, not judging. Only the Lord, the sower, can make judgements! If we are well rooted in the soil of our Faith, prayer and sacraments and the teaching of the Church, we will be able to withstand the weeds, the enemies who try to undermine our faithfulness.
We don’t all have such confidence to be able to feel safe and do the correct thing. Saint Paul in his letter to the Romans (today’s 2nd reading) gives us great assurance –“The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness.” So, when we don’t know what to do or how to act or how to pray, the Spirit who dwells in us will express our prayer and strengthen our actions in a far better way than we could ever do ourselves.
So, even though there is Darnel among us, even though the mustard seed may look very small and growth may be hidden, the Good News is that the Kingdom of God is indeed among us.