Focusing on the first and longest parable in the gospel reading (Matthew 13:24-43), the presence of weeds among the wheat portrays the perplexing situation in the reign of God, just as among Christians today the presence of sinners in the world and in the Church is a big challenge.
Children of the evil one
The Son of Man is the one who sows good seed in the world in establishing the reign of God. The good seed are the children of the kingdom. But the enemy comes under cover of darkness to sow weeds among the good seed; it is the devil at work spreading his own children. Good grain and weeds in the same field; murderers, plunderers, drug-pushers, shameless religious leaders in the kingdom of God, threatening perdition even to all the good people. A familiar scenario both in society at large and also in the Church.
Some people naively think that God as the creator of this world should have arranged things better, like having all sinners eliminated early on and maintaining an evil-less universe. So, they conclude that there is really no God or that God is not really good or all-powerful. Since evil is not eliminated, they would rather eliminate God. Many still have to understand that because God is good and omnipotent, He alone conceives of the humankind in His likeness with the calling to His divine love and with the freedom that it takes. As with His angels, so with His human beings: the fundamental freedom they have in order to be able to love is necessarily the freedom that can also lend itself to what is evil.
Let them grow together
IN the kingdom of God where there is always the interplay between divine initiative and human freedom, the end is never in doubt. Relentlessly, the will of God will be done; the completion of the work of Christ in the eternal reign of God will come. Meanwhile, people listen or reject God’s word as they will. We will always have scammers, egoistic and violent individuals who can gleefully watch the city burn for a song, side by side with heroes who labor assiduously for the good of the many and willing to accept sufferings in defiance of evil. Our need to separate one from the other is not always possible or easy; we go by appearances and ourselves oft tainted or otherwise motivated. God has a different take on this: We should not risk taking out the good as well in uprooting the weeds.
Human justice is not the last instance for the good or against evil. We are only too familiar with the inadequacies of our justice system, where the powerful can flaunt the law and wiggle out of culpability, and where the innocent can rot in blatant injustice or be simply rubbed out in utter inhumanity. We are more and more aware that what is said among us as legal and correct is not always truly moral and right in accord with God’s will. God does not rush to sort out the weeds from the wheat. He is only too aware that we all need time for growth and conversion. There is proper time for judgment. In the light of the divine mercy, life on earth should be one of always available second chance.
Alálaong bagá, God’s patience and indulgence arise from His wisdom and mercy that in time never gives up hope on us, even as to the very end, He provides the grace that can work miracles. Waiting is not inaction but unyielding charity to all. When people are murderously impatient with those perceived to be evil, they clearly are so sure of themselves and of their understanding of things that they forego of the safety net of our ground rules of God-given human rights and dignity. And when they play impatient gods instead of listening to divine wisdom and mercy, they end up devoured by the mindless tiger they choose to ride.
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