In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s Gospel reading our Lord tells a parable about a sower, who sows good seed, and who has an enemy who then comes and sows weeds among the wheat. And when the grain comes up, the weeds come up with it. The landowners servants ask whether they ought to go and tear up the weeds. The landowner tells his servants to let the weeds and the wheat grow together “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” The master is concerned for the wheat: he does not want to endanger any of it. So he says: “Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The Lord does not leave us to guess at the interpretation of this parable. At the behest of the disciples, he gives us a point-by-point explanation: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
There is a kind of rudimentary theodicy in this parable. [A theodicy is an account of the existence of evil.] God has sown good seed. He has created the world and all that is in it, and he has said that it is all very good (Gen. 1.31). Yet even in this parable, we may discern a mysterious and personal malignant power, working secretly, behind the scenes of creation, to bring destruction and ruin. We can almost hear the whispering of the Serpent in the enemy creeping through the field by night, planting weeds while the world slumbers: “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat… your eyes will be opened….” (Gen. 3.4-5).
Surely we are like the sheaves of wheat, straining upward toward the sun, and watered by the dew. And an honest examination of conscience will disclose a million instances of the beguiling voice, seeking to cut us off from the sunlight, whispering in our ear: You don’t need to listen to the voice of the Lord, you have no need of his commandments, you don’t need to serve him, you don’t need to worship him, you don’t need to love him.
And we are individually sown among unique weeds because we are each susceptible to particular beguilings, and particular predispositions to deception. One will be tempted by power, tempted to dominate and control situations and people; another will be tempted by indulgence in food or drink; another will be tempted by greed and the desire for material gain; another will be tempted sexually, to live by a standard other than what has been taught in Scripture. We are each surrounded by inducements to sin that are peculiar to us, to our proclivities and backgrounds; but the form is always the same: You don’t need to listen to what God has said; you don’t need to honor and obey him; you don’t need to love him; you are different; you are exempt; seek fulfillment on your own. That is the substance of the Serpent’s words to Eve, and that is the substance of his words to each of us. We all live in the world, and we are all surrounded by weeds that seek to cut us off from the sunlight and from the dew. And this is how it will be until the close of the age, when “the Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
But what are we to do in the meantime? We are to do what every successful sheaf of wheat does: to strain upward toward the sun, which is Christ; to drink up the dew, which is his teaching, the catholic faith: we are to grow strong in the Lord and the power of his might, to shoulder out the causes of sin, and to close our ears to the enticements of the world, the flesh, and the devil, knowing that however they may strike our fancy, they lead only and inevitably to the furnace of fire where men weep and gnash their teeth. We are to live in the conviction that Christ has conquered, and that we have but to stand aside, to deny ourselves that the Lord of creation might break forth powerfully and unstoppably within us.
He has already won, we have only to get out of the way of his victory. Yet this is hard. It means self-denial. “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life” (Matt. 7.14). And this is why we must keep our eyes, our minds and our hearts, fixed resolutely on Jesus Christ – because he is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, by which we are saved. He alone has conquered, and in him alone is our salvation. Like sheaves of wheat straining ever upward toward the sun, we must look constantly to Jesus, to seek him, to sigh after him, to wait on him. And like watered plants, we must live by the doctrine of the Church, “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4.4).
And though this is hard, we can stand in the conviction of St. Paul, who said in today’s reading from Romans: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In today’s Gospel reading our Lord tells a parable about a sower, who sows good seed, and who has an enemy who then comes and sows weeds among the wheat. And when the grain comes up, the weeds come up with it. The landowners servants ask whether they ought to go and tear up the weeds. The landowner tells his servants to let the weeds and the wheat grow together “lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.” The master is concerned for the wheat: he does not want to endanger any of it. So he says: “Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”
The Lord does not leave us to guess at the interpretation of this parable. At the behest of the disciples, he gives us a point-by-point explanation: “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
There is a kind of rudimentary theodicy in this parable. [A theodicy is an account of the existence of evil.] God has sown good seed. He has created the world and all that is in it, and he has said that it is all very good (Gen. 1.31). Yet even in this parable, we may discern a mysterious and personal malignant power, working secretly, behind the scenes of creation, to bring destruction and ruin. We can almost hear the whispering of the Serpent in the enemy creeping through the field by night, planting weeds while the world slumbers: “You will not die. For God knows that when you eat… your eyes will be opened….” (Gen. 3.4-5).
Surely we are like the sheaves of wheat, straining upward toward the sun, and watered by the dew. And an honest examination of conscience will disclose a million instances of the beguiling voice, seeking to cut us off from the sunlight, whispering in our ear: You don’t need to listen to the voice of the Lord, you have no need of his commandments, you don’t need to serve him, you don’t need to worship him, you don’t need to love him.
And we are individually sown among unique weeds because we are each susceptible to particular beguilings, and particular predispositions to deception. One will be tempted by power, tempted to dominate and control situations and people; another will be tempted by indulgence in food or drink; another will be tempted by greed and the desire for material gain; another will be tempted sexually, to live by a standard other than what has been taught in Scripture. We are each surrounded by inducements to sin that are peculiar to us, to our proclivities and backgrounds; but the form is always the same: You don’t need to listen to what God has said; you don’t need to honor and obey him; you don’t need to love him; you are different; you are exempt; seek fulfillment on your own. That is the substance of the Serpent’s words to Eve, and that is the substance of his words to each of us. We all live in the world, and we are all surrounded by weeds that seek to cut us off from the sunlight and from the dew. And this is how it will be until the close of the age, when “the Son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”
But what are we to do in the meantime? We are to do what every successful sheaf of wheat does: to strain upward toward the sun, which is Christ; to drink up the dew, which is his teaching, the catholic faith: we are to grow strong in the Lord and the power of his might, to shoulder out the causes of sin, and to close our ears to the enticements of the world, the flesh, and the devil, knowing that however they may strike our fancy, they lead only and inevitably to the furnace of fire where men weep and gnash their teeth. We are to live in the conviction that Christ has conquered, and that we have but to stand aside, to deny ourselves that the Lord of creation might break forth powerfully and unstoppably within us.
He has already won, we have only to get out of the way of his victory. Yet this is hard. It means self-denial. “For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life” (Matt. 7.14). And this is why we must keep our eyes, our minds and our hearts, fixed resolutely on Jesus Christ – because he is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, by which we are saved. He alone has conquered, and in him alone is our salvation. Like sheaves of wheat straining ever upward toward the sun, we must look constantly to Jesus, to seek him, to sigh after him, to wait on him. And like watered plants, we must live by the doctrine of the Church, “by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4.4).
And though this is hard, we can stand in the conviction of St. Paul, who said in today’s reading from Romans: “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved.”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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