Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Matthew 13:24-30
Most people hate weeds.
We hate them in our gardens. We hate them coming up through cracks in our driveways or sidewalks. We hate them in our backyards. We hate them in our dooryards.
Weeds are like green eggs and ham. We do not like them, Sam I am!
As Jesus’ parable for today shows, this anti-weed sentiment (and I’m not referring to marijuana) is hardly new. It’s a simple parable on the surface. One farmer sows wheat in his field. By night, an enemy comes and sows a kind of weed the Gospel calls zizania. It resembles wheat when it begins to grow. By the time one can tell the difference between it and true wheat, its roots have become entwined with that of the wheat. So, when the farmer’s servants ask if they should pull out the zizania, he tells them to let them all grow until harvest time. The wheat and the weeds can be safely separated only then.
Later, when his disciples ask him about the meaning of this parable, Jesus offers them an explanation. This explanation makes it clear that the story is not about the dangers of farming. It points to a reality in the experience of even the first Christian communities as well as our own. Moreover, we see this reality in any community of people, not only religious ones.
There are weeds among the wheat.
Some people do not live, or even try to live, according to the standards of the community – although some may pretend to do so. Some are hostile to others, or seek to take advantage of others in any way they can. We will at times encounter leaders in religious life as well as in civic life who do not practice what they preach. Some do not even preach what the community professes to believe. These people can prove disruptive to the community and even dangerous. Every community – from the local parish that screens volunteers to the nation screening immigrants – seeks to find ways to protect itself from potentially harmful members while remaining welcoming to all who sincerely want to join them. How do we deal with people who seem to be weeds among our wheat?
Moreover, if we are honest with ourselves as individuals, we must admit that there are weeds as well as wheat within our own hearts. We find in ourselves a sincere desire to do good and to be faithful to God, the Church, and in how we serve one another. Yet, we all have wounds and fears of various kinds that may cause us to lash out against others or use them for our own benefit. We may feel embarrassed or discouraged about these tendencies within us. How do we deal with our inner weeds?
Let’s start with the inner weeds. Our most common reaction is to look for a scapegoat when the inner weeds reveal themselves. “He made me angry.” “If she would mind her own business, I’d be okay.” And so on. But these people didn’t cause the inner weeds. Even if they say or do things that annoy, anger or hurt us, they only reveal to us the inner weeds that are already there. The puffed-up ego. The envy. The need to be right. The need to be liked. Since it’s hard to uproot our inner weeds, we look for someone else to blame. Uproot this person from my life, we believe, and all will be well.
That leads us to the outer weeds. This is more challenging. We have that tendency to scapegoat and blame others for our own inner weeds, as I have said. But sometimes there are weeds out there. We need to protect our children and vulnerable adults from those who would prey on them, be it sexually, financially, or in any other way. We need to have a certain transparency in how we conduct our affairs as a Church, so that there is no room for even the suspicion of financial irregularity. But what about other cases? The couple who is living together, let’s say? The priest who seems to have time only for the influential in his parish? Or anyone else whose words or life seem to be contrary, in some significant way, to what Christ and the Church teach us? Do we pull those weeds? Sometimes we feel that temptation. Wouldn’t our parish be better off without so-and-so? Or without those people? Or, if we only had Fr. Right instead of Fr. Wrong as our priest?
What is Jesus’ response in the parable? “No weeding just now. My Father will sort it all out in the end. Let weeds and wheat grow together until harvest time.”
“What?”, we say – or we would say, if it weren’t Jesus Himself we were talking to. “How can we tolerate such people? They are causing all our problems!”
Yet, the parable, with its recommendation of patience and faith, shows a wisdom that goes well beyond its apparent simplicity. Yes, wait. Why?
First of all, waiting gives us time to discern if we are merely scapegoating someone else for our own inner weeds. Maybe they aren’t the real problem. Something within me needs healing and conversion. My inner weeds are affecting my judgment. I need the Holy Spirit to reorder my attitudes and priorities. That can happen only with time.
Secondly, waiting gives the true outer weeds the opportunity to repent. Jesus tells us elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel that we should confront the serious sinners in our community about their sins, but in a loving way that will open the door to repentance and healing in the community. God’s patience, we are told elsewhere, is directed to our salvation. Time may give the offender a chance to regret any sins and find the Lord’s mercy once again.
Thirdly, we might dismiss as a “weed” someone who reminds the rest of us of some inconvenient truth and of our need to repent and become more truly what we claim to be. In some cases, the whole community can become “weeds” and lose its way. We need someone to take a stand for our own sake from time to time, reminding us, in a prophetic way, what fidelity to the Lord and the Church really means – even at the risk of being dismissed as a “weed” or a “troublemaker”. Only time can help us realize this. How often we only praise the true prophets in our midst only after they are dead!
Finally, waiting reminds us of who the true Judge really is, and who really is in charge. Only the Lord can know, in the end, who is truly a weed and who is truly wheat among us. As a people, we pray that the Holy Spirit will give us open, humble and discerning hearts, so that we might be open to this truth, whatever it may be. God will sort it out in the end. Our task is not to let the weeds – be they real or imagined – derail our own vocation from the Lord. As Jesus once reminded Peter, “What is that to you? Follow me!”