Homily: July 23, 2023, Monday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time (Weeds- wheat)

 “While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off.”

“Let them grow together until harvest…”

I picked these two verses from today’s Gospel reading.

If you have read the parish newsletter, you may have seen my article about the weeds in my planter. The latest update is, they have now grown even taller, are thriving and look very healthy. I actually enjoy observing their growth.

They don’t need water nor fertilizer yet with zero care, they grow. But the deer, bunnies and the ground squirrel in my neighborhood are not eating them. These animals used to just gobble up the flowers and vegetables I planted previous spring. They can tell that my plants were good while these weeds are bad.

The weeds grow naturally. I didn’t plant them. Where did they come from? How did it happen?

Jesus says in His parable, ‘while everyone was asleep’.

Yes, while I was doing nothing, my enemy did something. Negligence, laziness, procrastination, I was asleep. I didn’t work on my planter at all this spring.

In the same way, when we are doing nothing about our faith, our values, our gifts, then the devil will do something. Through slack and sloth, doubt and detachment from God, despair and depression will creep into us and just grow. 

Darkness and sin will thrive in our life without the need for us to do anything more. That is why sin is so tempting, so easy to get into but the practice of good virtues and keeping up our faith is harder work. Beware.

God sowed only good seeds at Creation.  At the end of each day of creation, in the book of Genesis 1:31 it says, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good.”

So then the devil spoilt it. We were tempted and abused the free will gifted to us. We allowed weeds into our world. So why can’t God just remove all these evil? Just pull out the weeds?

Jesus says, “Let them grow together until harvest…” Why?

In other versions of this Gospel text, the weeds are called darnel. If you search up darnel & wheat, you will see that they look exactly alike while growing. It is hard to differentiate between them. At this point, our Lord explains, “if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them”. It is hard to separate the good from the bad in this world.

Yet, God does not want to lose the good. He does not want to sacrifice His beloved creation in the weeding process. The devil is so good that his works seem to look good, and some good works of godly people might look bad on the surface. If we judge too soon, we might make the wrong move. 

God has a long-term plan for the world. He has a far-sighted view of the world’s situation. He is patiently waiting for end times, when the harvest is ready, when we are ready.

Look again at the weeds and the wheat at harvest time. Farmers will know how different they look then because of the fruits they bear. It would be much easier then to separate them.

The fruits of our faithfulness will shine through the darkness at the end of time. And what about those who were confused? God continues to call them and waits for their conversion and realization. He is giving them time to wake up and bear good fruit.

While we ourselves are growing in our spiritual life, let us not be confused nor discouraged by the evil in this world. Let us focus on doing good, encourage and guide those who are lost, and make the effort to produce the fruits that we are created for. At the time of harvesting, God’s angels will do the separating.

Let us not be asleep, negligent nor lazy. Do something about our faith my friends, do something. Amen.