Gospel (Mt 13, 24-30)
At that time, Jesus offered this parable to the crowd: “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. Now, while the people were sleeping, his enemy appeared; he sowed tares among the wheat and departed. When the stalk grew and produced the ear, then the tares also appeared. The master’s servants came and said to him, “Lord, is it not good seed that you have sown in your field? Where then has there been tares?” He said to them: “An enemy has done this.” The servants said to him, “Do you want us to go and take it away?” He answers: “No, by removing the tares, you risk uprooting the wheat at the same time. Let them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers: First remove the tares, bind them in bundles to burn them; as for the wheat, gather it up and bring it into my barn.” »
Other readings: Wis 12, 13.16-19; Ps 85 (86); Rom 8, 26-27
To understand
Wisdom of God
When a page of the Gospel enters everyday language, it is because it touches our deep humanity. This is the case of the parable of the wheat and the tares, which questions us about the coexistence of good and evil in the world.
It challenges Christians all the more since Christ’s victory over death and the announcement of the kingdom of God: how can God, good and all-powerful, allow evil to prosper, in all its forms, around us, and in us?
Jesus provides an answer that the disciples will have to meditate on: at the dawn of the day, the Son of Man sowed only the good seed in the vast field of the open world that belongs to him. In this open field, the forces of the night passed to sow “discord” (another name for chaff) before leaving again. The good grain pre-exists the tares, but both grow side by side, day and night, where they were sown. The good sower of the day knows that the tares of the night appear very close to the good wheat until fully grown. His patience and his gaze will recognize the ripe wheat when the ear bends under the weight of the good grains and exceeds the tares in height; it stood proud and thick but it was only poison, and it will be completely consumed at the harvest.
Meditate
God’s time
We must adopt the patience and outlook of the good sower to reap the good seed of this parable. The Lord’s time is not ours (2 Pt 3:8-9) and his thoughts are not those of men (Mt 16:23).
It is the hour of maturity of the wheat which will usher in the time of harvest: then nothing will be lost to feed the multitude of men.
Our clumsy zeal can tempt us to tear away from around us what is evil in our eyes, making us judges of what is good or bad, while the field of our heart is itself strewn with mixed wheat and chaff.
We are the sons of the kingdom. Let us begin by recognizing in ourselves the good seed that the Lord has sown; let’s take care of it, and ensure its growth throughout our lives. The good grain of love and forgiveness can limit the proliferation of the tares of our jealousies, our divisions, and our pettiness: the enemy who spread it at night has left, and he is not the owner of our lives.
The Son of Man himself ventured into the great field of the world of men. He encountered distrust, rejection, and violence. He fought evil with only the weapons of good. “Wherever he went, he did good and healed all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. » (Acts 10, 38) The forces of evil united against him believed to destroy him by hanging him on the torture tree. God resurrected him on the third day.
Jesus did not deny the existence of evil. He had to denounce it and cross it, to go to the extreme of love. Like the tiny mustard seed, the Kingdom is already growing, but it has not yet reached its fulfillment. Let us not be surprised, and let us remain attentive and patient workers in the service of the master of the harvest.
Pray
Lord, give me your perspective on myself and others to learn to recognize good from bad, and to tell the truth. You have placed in me a path towards what is good but I leave the field open to the forces of the night.
Give me your patience so as not to despair of my own discord, and make the Gospel grow in me until the day you come to collect my life. Then you will invite me to enter into the joy of your Kingdom. Amen.
