Wheat and Weeds in Our Lives and God’s Mercy
Homily on “Wheat and Weeds in Our Lives and God’s Mercy” based on the Gospel of Matthew 13: 24-30:
Like many of you, one of my favorite hobbies is gardening. I have quite a number of fruit trees, vegetable and flowering plants. And, I the accept the reality that there will always be weeds growing in the garden that I have to keep in control.
That is the reality of life as well. Jesus tells us also that we can expect weeds along with our good plants throughout our lives. Jesus tells his disciples that in this world the good will exist along with the evil and it is going to be that way till the end of time. That's life and we have to expect to deal with that reality.
All of us experience good and bad in ourselves. We strive to be good, to do good and to live a life pleasing to God the best we can, but still, we all fail at times and we sin. We all have weeds in the garden of our life.
It is said that there are few things more difficult for the human heart than waiting. We get impatient and so we look for instant responses and solutions. We become impatient with our failures, intolerant of others’ weaknesses, and often wonder why a powerful God does not destroy evil right away.
Atheists are basically people who are just impatient with God.
Whenever we see injustice, corrupt people are rewarded, while good people suffer, this ancient question arises within us. Why is there evil if God really exists and if God is really good?
Today's readings address this timeless question. The readings reveal a God who is neither indifferent to evil nor powerless before evil. Rather, God is infinitely patient because his justice is governed by his mercy. God's power is revealed not in domination but in mercy.
As Bishop Robert Barron said: “God’s purpose is not to destroy the enemy but to change him…. Not to destroy the enemy culture but to convert it.
Why does God not just eliminate his enemies? … just get rid of them? - because God loves His enemies… and so the Church’s purpose, and so our purpose – we are the Church – our purpose is not so much to destroy our enemies but to convert them…”
So, when we are tempted to lose faith in people including ourselves, all we need to do is look to Christ. Jesus keeps believing in the human race. Jesus keeps believing in our world. But most of all, Jesus keeps us believing in ourselves.
Our job is to recognize the fact that there will always be weeds of sin cropping up in our life. And so - we need to cultivate, nurture - to mulch – so to speak - with the Sacraments; we need to fertilize with prayer and we need to weed with the Sacrament of Penance.
The late Pope Benedict 16 said: God's patience is an invitation to conversion. not an approval of evil.
God never looks merely at what we are. God always sees what his grace can make us become. That is how God looks at us. We often see only weeds.
God sees wheat still growing. We see failures. God sees possibilities.
Archbishop Fulton Sheen said: God sees two pictures of each one of us.
In the first picture - God sees us exactly as we are right now - with all our strengths and weaknesses, with all of what we have accomplished and with all we have failed to do… God sees that exact picture of each one of us… as we are right now and every moment.
The second picture of us that God sees - is - us as what we could be if we responded to His abundant graces… God sees us in the best version of ourselves as God meant us to be - God sees us already in our glorious state.
In the Gospel reading:
The slaves said to the master: 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?' The master replied, 'No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.”
What surprises us is not that weeds appear because that is the reality of life.
What is surprising is that the owner in the parable refuses to uproot the weeds immediately.
See - How different God's wisdom is from ours. We want immediate purification. God desires patient transformation. In this world, there are both saints and sinners. God does not immediately condemn the sinners.
Jesus shows in the parable that the kingdom on earth is the time of the mercy of God. Even today, God permits the righteous and sinners to grow together. Wheat and weed grow together. Until God separates them, it is the time of God’s compassion and opportunity for human conversion.
God awaits with patience. This parable is not only about society. It is also about the church itself. Even within every parish, within every religious community, within every family and even every human heart, this parable of wheat and weeds growing together holds true.
St. Augustine said: "The church is not a museum of saints, but a hospital for sinners. The church exists not because everyone is perfect, but because everyone is invited to become holy.
St. Thomas Aquinas writes, "Mercy does not destroy justice. Mercy is the fullness of justice. God delays judgment because he values repentance more than punishment." So - in this case, justice delayed is not justice denied.
It was said: “One of the greatest tragedies of modern life is that people define others by their worst moments. God never does. The Apostle Peter himself denied Christ three times. Paul persecuted Christians. Matthew was a tax collector. Mary Magdalene carried a painful past. Augustine lived a life of moral confusion. But every one of them became a saint… even Doctor of the Church. Imagine if God had judged them too early… they would not have become saints The weeds would never have become wheat.
St. John Chrisostom beautifully said: As long as we breathe, the door of repentance remains open. This is why Christians must never lose hope about anyone including ourselves. Grace can accomplish what punishment never can. That is why we are against death penalty. If you kill the person, then you lose what may seem to be even a remote possibility of repentance and conversion.
The interesting fact is that most of us resemble the servants in the parable. We are so quick in judging people as good or bad, worthy or unworthy, saved or lost. The truth is - only God sees the entire story of a person – of each one of us.
We see only one page or a chapter of a person’s life story, God sees the whole book of the person’s life. History has proven that many people whom we thought will never change have surprised the world with true conversion. At the same time, many who appeared righteous have fallen later. The final judgment belongs to God because only God knows every hidden struggle.
I used to teach Grage 8 Religious Education/CCD.
One of my students really gave me a hard time the whole year – with quite an attitude, to say the least. I found out later that she was like that not just in my class but even in regular school, even at home.
A few years only later, I was surprised to see her at my baptismal preparation class – she’s the mother of one of the children I am going to baptize.
After class, she approached me and asked if I remember her. I said: “How could I not, we had such quite an interesting year.
She said she was sorry remembering our encounters – She said she had several personal issues then and it only got worse later… so, at an early age – she got into smoking, alcohol, even drugs and even sexual promiscuity, a really wild life.
She said: “Everyone, including my dad gave up on me – except my mom”. Her mom never gave up on her which made a whole world of difference for her.
She said: “Deacon, all I want now is to be the best mother I can be for my daughter.”
It is one of the most memorable highlights of my ministry experiences.
The gospel challenges us to cultivate three Christian attitudes:
First, let us be patient with ourselves. Let us not become discouraged by slow spiritual growth. We need to trust God’s timing.
The late Pope Francis said: “God never tires of forgiving us. We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness.”
Secondly, let us be patient with others. We need to remember that today's weed, so to speak, may become tomorrow's saint.
Thirdly, let us cooperate daily with the Holy Spirit. By spending time in silent prayer, let us realize that conversion is not achieved overnight – it is cultivated every day.
God is not done with me yet. God is not done with you yet. Let us never make the mistake of thinking that God is absent. The truth is - God is patient. Remember, God has all eternity to make things right and just.
Amen.
God bless…
