23 July 2023 – 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) | 3rd World Day for Grandparents & Elderly

by Fr Fabian Dicom

The parable of the wheat and the weeds is the continuation of last week’s parable of the seeds and the soil. Only instead of good seed planted by a good sower, here we encounter two kinds of seeds sown by opposite sowers, one good and one bad.

Now Jesus teaches us that the seeds in this parable are not so much about faith like last week’s lesson but about two different kinds of discipleship, namely the kind that is life-giving, it is a life-giving seed of Jesus. The other being a weed producer that has no use in the kingdom of God.

Laurel Dykstra, an Anglican priest in his article seeds and wheats says that the weeds sown in this parable are of a specific species, darnel. That is what we heard in the gospel. Darnel looks very much like wheat when it is immature, he writes. Its roots intertwine with those of the wheat and its toxic grains are loosely attached to the stem. The problem of what to do with that infested field does not have a simple solution. Pull up the shoots and you will pull out the wheat. Wait till the harvest and you poison the grain and contaminate next year’s crop with falling seeds. The seeds of the darnel can be fatal when ingested. So that is the situation.

Now this is a great reminder that while we, you and I, like to see ourselves as good people, doing our best to live as faithfully and kindly as we can. Given the circumstances that we face, there is always a little darnel lurking around, intertwining itself in our souls, in our hearts, in our minds. Think about all that has been going on recently, in the world, in our country. All that has come to light. As we have seen, the social and spiritual viruses spreading among us from individuals to individuals, to communities, to societies, to the country, causing all kinds of sicknesses and even death.

Evil viruses like racism, corruption, religious bigotry. And when we talk about religious bigotry, let us not look outside ourselves. There is this virus of Christian supremacy as well. We have the kind of evil that is spread through prejudice and fear-mongering. And we are all accustomed to this.

This evil is real. It is not a hoax or fake news. And we are all affected by it. Not even the church is immune. The church, we are a people who are susceptible and vulnerable to the world around us. And we hear in the Gospel when the servants want to reap off the weeds, what does the landowner tells them to do? Let them grow together until the harvest.

I doubt that the experience of the servants is foreign or alien to us. It certainly isn’t for me. I have been frustrated when things have not gone my way. Or gone the way I thought they would. I thought I have prepared the soil and planted good seeds, metaphorically speaking, for some plan that I have. And then something goes awry.

I want to correct it, like the servants. To make it right even if it means risking damage to something important. It feels like life has assailed me. As if some enemy has done this. And I bet you have felt the same way, at least at some point in your life:
When the cancer returns.
When you lose your job.
When the relationship ends.
When depression sets in.
When addiction robs a loved one or even ourselves of life.
When a community is divided.
When a loved one’s life is cut short. We’ve experienced quite a bit of it recently.
When you are violated or abused by people in power, both in society and in church.
When war in general, when war forces thousands to flee as refugees.
And when the world turns its back on people in need.
We feel the same.

And there is this temptation to use this parable to explain evil. And it probably won’t turn out well but at least we can acknowledge the reality of evil. Can we do that? Yes. And having acknowledged it, can we then also acknowledge, this is very important my dear brothers and sisters, that this is not God’s design or desire. We need to be clear about this. We acknowledge the reality of evil but it is not His design or desire.

Jeffrey Spencer in his sermon on weeds and wheat said: “I have witnessed time and again how difficult it is for many of us to avoid the temptation to explain evil – quite ironically! – by assigning it to some greater plan God supposedly has for us.” And we hear statements like that:
Don’t worry. It is part of God’s plan. Someone says to another after a tragedy.
Or, Don’t worry. God never gives us more than we can handle. [As if such hardship is something coming from God himself.]
Or God’s purpose for this will reveal itself in time. I cannot ‘tahan’ such things.

We do that. Like as if suddenly God is using us to say and we see these things. Most of the time being very insensitive and assigning everything, these words of supposed comfort end up assigning God responsibility for tragedy, for brokeness for everything.

I think one of the things this parable and the readings today suggest is that God does not will evil for us. Not in any way, not in any shape or form. That our tragedies are not part of God’s plan. God never ever wants us to suffer. Rather according to Saint Paul in Romans 8:28, a verse after today’s Second Reading: God works for the good in all things. For those God loves.

And on a personal level, looking at our interior, perhaps this parable may make us ask this:

Am I wheat or weed? Am I a darnel or a wheat?

Let me tell you the answer: We are both. We are both, we are all.

And our parish, our diocese, our church is both wheat and weeds. Okay. But providentially God is not only just. God is patient and most of all God is merciful. So while we are both wheat and weeds, when the final sorting comes, I am certain about this, because of the message of Jesus, we will be transformed into a bumper crop.

The First Reading from the book of Wisdom assures us of that. The context of this reading is that it is a part of a series of reflection of the text of Exodus. The author considers God’s treatment of the Canaanites upon the entry of the Israelites into their land. And the author shows God’s mercy towards the wicked Canaanites, you know about them. That God’s wisdom is not like humankind but in fact in the face of wickedness, God’s attitude to His creatures is one of care. In verse 13 that we heard: There is no God other than You who cares for everything. And His strength lies precisely in His righteousness and mercy, in verse 16.

And the psalm, beautifully sung just now, echoes the same sentiments.

In our modern day language, God is saying: I got you. Chill, I got you.

Thus this parable is a perfect teaching tool for us today. Reminding us to remain present and fully engaged in God’s goodness, even as evil encroaches on us. We are all in this together. And we need to lean into God’s goodness if we are going to grow in and through Him. Our calling is to grow in grace before God and others as Jesus did.

We look to Him to help us embrace our limitations and grow in grace. Saint Paul assures us in today’s Second Reading that the Spirit helps us in our weakness. With the Spirit’s help, we can grow more and more into the person of Christ and become what Paul in one of his letters call, God’s field. The good fruit from that field of God’s goodness and love will always reveal the glory of God’s love in you and in me.

Our only litmus test, Jesus tells us, will be based on how we produce good fruit in ways we care for one another. In ways we love others as God loves us. That we get other people, we take care of them the way God is taking care of us. That, my dear brothers and sisters, is the mark of a true and life-giving disciple of the Lord, a disciple who is called to be a witness of God’s kingdom of peace, of justice, of love, here and now.

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