SIXTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

“Let them grow together until harvest”

Mt. 13,24-43

Rev. Alexander Diaz

Mathew,  great educator, teacher and systematizer,  puts together on all chapter thirteen, a chapter that we started last Sunday with the parable of  “The Sower”,  all together this chapter has seven parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, taken from various places of the tradition, and  laid out as a group, two blocks, one in public and the other in private, (Mt.13,1-35) takes place in public and contains the teachings directed to the people, who do not understand them.  

The purpose of this group is to offer a reflection about skepticism, not believing, and the posture the believer should adopt facing it.  The Gospel corresponding to this Sunday, exhibits and demonstrate to us three of these seven parables, and these are:  the parable of the Weeds among the Wheat; the parable of the Mustard Seed and the parable of the Yeast. They are all a concrete presentation of the kingdom of heaven.  

The parable of the weeds is one we are accustomed or used to hear in our personal dialog and our daily communication, “to sow weeds” is our  lexicon-and even in the Dictionary- this means to put enmity or do wrong to others, it is an element so alive and certain that it does not need a lot of explanation and yet, Jesus, in a very simple but very profound way makes reference to all the great questions we make ourselves around our surroundings.    

¿Why the evilness, the wickedness?  ¿Why so much suffering?  ¿How can we understand the power of God, when we are surrounded by evil deeds, wicked things?  ¿What is the role that God plays in all these things?   Facing all these questions, an answer is given to us, which is more incredible than what we can imagine:  good walks besides evil in the same path, thru the same tracks.

This is what Jesus tells us in the parable: “Let them grow together until harvest, then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters; “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into the barn.” (Mt. 13,30)  The Lord allows this to march at the same rhythm, without taking notice that at the end, they will be separated from each other.   But there is one certainty; the evil will disappear, vanish, before reaching the end of the path.   

It will vanish by the invisible force of good and righteousness.  Evil only is destroy with the exercise of good deeds. “Defeat evil with goodness”;   to use the tools of love in the solution of great conflicts.  Love is stronger than anything else, even when it seems to many as harmless, that is the real solution.

Therefore, there is no reason to fear evil, we have to keep sowing the kingdom of heaven with passion.  The Kingdom of God needs to be sowed, taken care of, pampered, lived.   Evil propagates on its own, you only have to sow it.   There is a reality that is very easy to prove, and that is, evil manages to hide for a long time in the lives of people in the form of hate, evil, jealousy, being distant from God, etc. 

In the world, evil is present in all kinds of actions that leads the human being to permanent unhappiness .  There is a state of existence where the person loses the north of his life and at the end does not even know who he is, where he is at or where he is going.  The paradox of evil and good in the world seem not to demand a great effort, it’s done very easily and even with impunity. 

To make a person suffer is very simple,  to destroy is easy, but to do good deeds, to create, to let others grow, make them feel human,  to free them of the ties of their sins, is a good deed that can be done only by God thru us. A person can become infected of evil, wickedness very easily thru the actions of another person.  

A person can be permanently incited to do good only if God illuminates him, gives him the necessary strength and support in the interior of his heart.   In order to sow good, each person has to be a brother or sister to the other.  For many people, the Gospel appears as something without strength, without possibilities to transform the lives of the people around us.  ¿Do you feel transformed by God? ¿If you do, why? ¿On What? 

The Gospel is like a small seed, almost insignificant, it is not full of philosophy, it does not boasts, it can be preached and understood by anyone who opens his/her heart to goodness.  We should not forget that both plantings, the sowing of God’s mercy and the sowing of evil is done almost at the same time. Each person must decide which harvest he will chose to gather. 

I am convinced, because it was promised by the  Word, that Christ  will triumph at the end of History.  To know what is wrong and what is right, we have to turn time and time again to the Word and the heart of God, to the Christian experiences of so many men and women where goodness made its dwelling.  

We have to turn back, time and time again to our own hearts, so that the interior and personalized dialog with God, will allow  us to understand that we are not call to judge anyone.  Jesus did not named us judges to anyone, but brothers and sisters to our brothers and sisters. I leave the judgement to the Lord and I prefer to welcome  the one who allows the weed to grow within himself, with the love which God accepts and welcomes me. (Mario Santana Bueno)

Now we have the opportunity to recourse ourselves to the limitless  Mercy that God gives us, but when our final hour comes, be it by death or by the end of the world, we will have to recourse to Divine Justice.   Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, the evildoers will be thrown into the fiery furnace.  The parable and the explanation of our Lord are very clear.  “Whoever has ears ought to hear.”  Mt. 13,43 . 

Amen!!