7/23/2022 - 16th Sunday of Ordinary TIme

The Wheat and the Weeds of Life 

    Since its earliest days, the Church has preferred to tolerate varying degrees of commitment and holiness, as expressed by the phrase, "let them grow together until harvest." God has been described in the Bible as "merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness," so an accepting mindset is consistent with that description of God in the Hebrew Scriptures. The world, which is often quick to judge, quick to anger, and eager to uproot weeds even at the cost of damaging the good plants, could learn a lot from a Church that is kind and lenient toward its own members and toward everyone else.

      According to the Vatican II document, ‘The Church in the Modern World’. The Church is a beacon of the kind of family that allows for and enlivens honest dialogue because of her mission to spread the light of the Gospel to all peoples everywhere. In order to accomplish this mission, it is essential that we create an atmosphere of respect, reverence, and unity within the Church by fully acknowledging legitimate forms of diversity.

      To understand the parable of the wheat and the weeds, it's important to recognize that the weed being referred to here is a specific species (zizania) that, in its earliest stages of development, can be easily mistaken for wheat. That clarifies why it's possible that removing the weeds will also remove the wheat. So why would He say, "Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvester, "First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn"?

        There is both wheat and weeds in the Lord's harvest. Some people are the good wheat that the Lord is gathering. There are also those who are nothing but weeds. Being in the bottom tier is undesirable. Weeds are bundled up and burned off. So how do we identify which individuals are the bad weeds who must be burned?

          The Lord says that we shouldn't. We don't need it right now, at least. It's possible that the rudest, proudest, most worldly person in the next pew will be counted among the wheat when the angels come to gather the wheat to heaven at the end of the world. However, even the most modest and diligent individual sitting quietly next to you in church might be among the weeds. Neither the wheat nor the weeds are known to us. The Lord recognizes his people. We may be able to pass judgment on a person's decisions, actions, and routines, but we lack the expertise to determine where they will spend eternity when the angels arrive on Judgment Day.

       It's a terrifying thought to consider one's own status in the light of the Lord's parable of the wheat and the weeds. You have no business passing judgment on anyone, including yourself. Nietzsche made the sarcastic remark, "they don't even look like the redeemed!" in reference to Christians. But how could we possibly recognize the redeemed? And how would Nietzsche even be aware of this? We are not qualified to play the role of judge, which is not part of our job description.

     Following the teaching from the parable of the Sower of last week, we are invited then to move on to become the fertile soil and the good wheat. To do our part, we must draw near to Christ and cling to him. Holiness is within our reach. When we join ourselves to the “sacred wheat” – Christ in the Eucharist – we are truly being transformed. We, as human beings, have the great capacity to accept God’s grace and walk in the path of intimacy with God. Finding God and becoming a saint is a mysterious, full of surprises, mystical call from the Lord, for us, ordinary persons – indeed, everyone.

“Sinners make the best contemplatives,” according to the classic book, the ‘Cloud of Unknowing.’ To listen to the silence of the heart is the silence waiting for us beyond the orbit of our noisy narcissistic world. This heals us and makes us whole again – holy.

Fr Tom Kunnel, C.O.