Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 13:24-43]
23.07.2023
The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds
(1)
1. Theme
in brief
Tolerance, patience and
non-judgmental attitudes
2.
Focus Statement
The disciples of Jesus should exercise God’s
own qualities of enormous tolerance and patience towards evil or bad people in
the world, instead of forcibly uprooting or weeding them out
straightaway.
3. Explanation
of the text
The Parable of the Wheat and
Weeds in
today’s gospel is another
illustration taken from agricultural field to explain one more feature of God’s Kingdom. Like the Sower’s parable, we have this one also
both in its original sense (13:24-30) and in its allegorized form (13:36-43)
that gives each detail or point a separate (hidden) meaning. In the original
sense, the single spiritual truth contained
in this parable is this: The
Kingdom of God is not a society of pure saints, but a mixture of
good and bad people, or saints and sinners. What should be the attitude of
disciples towards evil or bad people in God’s Kingdom? Instead of
forcibly uprooting or weeding out the bad people and
unbelievers, the disciples should exercise God’s own qualities of
enormous tolerance and patience till the ‘harvest time’ (that is, till the final judgement of
God) comes. They should leave the work of judging and
separating in God’s hands.
Unlike the previous one,
this parable does not have one but two sowers: one good
sower who sows good seeds of wheat and
another evil sower (an enemy) who secretly sows weeds among the wheat when
all are asleep (13:24-25). [Note: Here Jesus refers to a weed called
darnel in Palestine that closely resembles wheat. Before the plants
mature, it is very difficult to make out the difference between the two.] At
maturity, the householder's slaves notice the weeds and wonder where these
weeds came from (13:27), doubting about the quality of the seed sown by their master. When they come to
know from the master that it is the work of an enemy, they want to react by uprooting the weeds straightaway (13:28). He restrains them and allows
both wheat and weeds to grow together till harvest (13:29-30), indicating God’s
immense patience and tolerance of evil people till the time for harvest, that
is, judgement and separation
will come.
The allegorized version of the parable
(13:37-42) gives a little different understanding. It clearly explains the
hidden meaning point by point: the one who sows the
good seed is the Son of Man (13: 37); the field is the world (13:38); the good
seeds are the children of the Kingdom (13:38); the weeds are the children of
the evil one (13:38); the enemy who sowed the weeds is the devil (13:39); the
harvest is the end of the age (13:39); and the reapers the angels (13;39).
Hence, this parable clearly
contrasts the children of God’s Kingdom with the children of the evil one
(or the devil). Further, it contrasts the glory (shining) of the former with the doom of the latter at the time of harvest (at
the end of the age, 13:40).
4. Application
to
life
Our world, society, Church and family all have their own
wheat and weeds. All of them have a mixture of
good and evil people, virtuous and sinners. A question always haunts our mind:
why does God allow evil or evildoers to thrive?
Why doesn’t he uproot them
straightaway? In our world there is so much concern for human welfare, but at
the same time so much cruelty; in the family there is so much love and joy, but
enough suffering, divisions, anxieties and tensions; and in the Church there
are saintly people, but also sinners and scandal mongers. Yes, Jesus says it
clearly without mincing words that
the Kingdom of God inaugurated on earth by him is and will
always be a mixture of true believers and unrepentant sinners.
We wish how wonderful and ‘pure’ our world would be without hardened sinners,
criminals and anti-social elements in it. We dream of a world where there would be only pure, good,
gentle, kind, charitable and well-meaning people. When we fail to
find such ‘pure’ people, as the slaves of the householder mentioned
in today’s parable wished, we too wish that all evildoers may be weeded out
immediately.
When God or the authorities in the world fail to root out evildoers as we wish, there is a
tendency in us to take the matters into our own hands and deal with evil or
evildoers. We wish to weed out all
those who do not accept our ideology, viewpoint, faith practices, religious
doctrine, social customs and traditions, political viewpoints, etc. We tend to
judge other religions and churches or Christian denominations as devilish and
superstitious and consign them to eternal damnation.
We categorize people as “believers” and “non-believers”, “good” and “bad”
people, “liberals” and “conservatives”, “reliable” and “cheats”, the “faithful”
and the “unfaithful”, “virtuous” and “sinners”, etc. There is an expressed or unexpressed wish
in our minds to eliminate the wicked instantly and teach them a lesson. In our mind we imagine an immediate
and stern action against them before the matter
goes out of hands.
Here comes our Divine Master through today’s parable to
stop us from taking such an action.
He says that it is not so easy to make out who is ‘wheat’ and who is ‘weed’ and
who is ‘in’ who is ‘out’ of God’s Kingdom. Only God knows the hearts of people
and will separate both on the Judgement Day. Uprooting straightaway would do
more damage to the crop than good. Jesus says that the ‘reapers’ or the angels
at the harvest time will gather all the evildoers and throw them into the
furnace. As we are only the ‘slaves’ of God’s Kingdom, it is not our work. We
should be well aware of the fact that there are two sowers in our world: God and the devil. We just cannot ignore the fact
that there is evil in the midst of good inside each one of us and in the world
around us. This parable warns us not to take God’s work into our own hands; and
instead, keep ourselves busy in building up God’s Kingdom.
Do we listen to the master
in today’s parable who does not allow his slaves to take such an immediate
and drastic step? He objects to
such an action because, first of all, it is not so easy to distinguish the weeds from the wheat till they reach maturity, and
secondly rooting out the weeds right now might do more
harm to the crop than good. Immediate uprooting
is risky because who can judge human heart fully except God? Those who externally appear
saintly may be internally corrupt. There is a victim crying for justice even in the worst of
criminals. Are we fully aware why criminals become
criminals? Quite often family, society and governments (unconsciously and
indirectly) create or lay the foundation for criminal behaviour by inflicting
deep emotional wounds and bitterness. If justice was denied to children in their childhood either due to lack
of love or authoritarianism or a traumatic experience, they may cry for justice
in their adult life by their criminal behaviour. Drastic and immediate uprooting is also dangerous because, in that case, we deprive the
‘weeds’ (evildoers) among us to get plenty of opportunities to turn into ‘wheat’ (or be converted) till the end of
their lives.
We observe that In general, human
society is not compassionate towards people with criminal/ deviant/ addictive/
immoral/ abnormal behaviour; it stigmatizes them. Normally we react to such people in one of these ways:
becoming intolerant towards
them, harshly judging them, showing impatience at their lack of reform and condemning them severely. Though we need to correct them by following the
prescribed rules or norms, does mere condemnation or punishment reform them? By
judging them with hundred per cent certainty about their condition, are we not
taking the place of God? Today’s gospel-message invites us to
leave the final judgement of
evil people to God. God is patient; he allows the good and the wicked to live
together till the end. As God tolerates the sinners and gives them plenty of
opportunities for repentance, we too should show respect and tolerance towards such people. We tend to
be intolerant of others’ weaknesses and generous with our own; don’t we?
The parable calls for patience with
those who do not meet our standards with the faith that God will deal with them
in his own time in the way he wants. Uprooting them now itself may create more
problems than solving them. We might destroy the good with the bad. All the
parents, teachers and leaders are called to put up with people who resist any
change and reform. We need a reservoir of God’s grace to tolerate the
intolerable and be on our guard not to allow frustration to
become our master that drives us to do what we are not supposed to go. If we
want to see a wonderful family/ society/ Church, what we need is a wonderful
patience. After all, all of us are imperfect people
and have to be patient with other imperfect people. By the way, this principle
is meant to be practiced on a personal level and not to be applied to the area
of administration/ management, where sometimes we may have to take a disciplinary action against wrongdoers.
The owner of the field in today’s parable is quite
different from any sensible farmer. Which reasonable farmer would wait till the
harvest to root out the weeds? He would do it as soon as he is able to
distinguish wheat from weeds so that he does not incur any loss. Jesus tells us
that God is so different from a sensible farmer. In all his parables he tells
us about various features of God’s Kingdom. This parable also tells us that
the new society visualized
by Jesus (called the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s
gospel), is not supposed to be a society where intolerance,
condemnation and harsh
judgement rule. Instead, tolerance, respect and acceptance of
differences among humans and diversity of faith traditions/ culture/ language/
race are the features of this society. We exhibit the traits of a rival
kingdom, namely Satan’s kingdom (dominion), when we judge and condemn evildoers
harshly and wish for their destruction. Anyway, weeds will
ultimately be destroyed at the time of ‘harvest’ (that is, final judgement). We
should leave that job to God himself.
We
can notice a growing tendency of intolerance towards
others’ religion, race, caste, gender, language, region and nation in our world
today. The growth of religious fundamentalism, instances of racism, linguistic
bigotry, gender discrimination and riots among two different religious
communities are symptoms of it. Sometimes we contribute to this evil by our own
intolerant/ discriminatory/ prejudicial behaviour and talk, especially in front
of innocent children. We exhibit intolerance towards those who hold contrary
ideologies, religious beliefs, and those belonging to other religious sects.
Today’s gospel-message invites us to positively and consciously cultivate a
spirit of respect for
and acceptance of diversity or differences that exist in our society and world.
Today’s gospel invites us to think of what we can do to promote a better
understanding and a spirit of mutual respect and co-existence among us in spite of our
differences.
Let us forget about others. Each one of us is a mixture of goodness and evil,
holiness and sinfulness. Spiritual Gurus speak about seven basic inclinations to sin inherent in all
of us by birth – pride, anger, greed, lust,
sloth, envy and gluttony – that constantly drive us towards evil
thoughts and actions. We need to wage a regular war or forcefully struggle to resist the
dominion of these seven ‘demons’ over our lives. God gives us plenty of chances
to change ourselves from ‘weeds’ into ‘wheat’. With the power of God’s Spirit
we must weed out evil tendencies and deeds until the end of our lives by
constantly following the path of repentance and
conversion.
If we like to take the allegorized version, we must ask
ourselves whether we are good seed (wheat) sown by Jesus or evil seed sown by
Satan; whether we are the children of God’s Kingdom or the children of the evil one (or
devil); and whether we shall shine like the sun in the Kingdom of the Father or
will be doomed for ever.
5. Response to
God's Word
Inspired by today’s
gospel-message, are we wiling to overcome an expressed or unexpressed wish or
desire in our minds to eliminate the wicked instantly? Imitating God’s own
quality, are we willing to give the ‘weeds’ (evildoers) among us plenty of
opportunities to turn into or be converted into ‘wheat’? Though we need to deal
with criminals and rebellious/deviant behaviour according to social norms and
family’s traditions, are we in the forefront of only condemnation and harsh
judgement without taking any positive steps for their reform? Do we respect and
accept the differences that exist among people of a different religion, race,
caste, gender, language, region and nation? What can we do to promote a better
understanding and a spirit of co-existence among all people…?
6. A
prayer.
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is
intolerance, let me sow respect and acceptance of differences among us. Where
there is mere condemnation, compassion; where there are judgemental
attitudes, understanding; where there is impatience, endurance; where there is
evil, goodness; and where there is hopelessness, hope. Amen.
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