The readings for Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/072323.cfm
In today’s gospel from Saint Matthew, we hear another parable.
And just like last Sunday, Jesus uses the planting of seeds to make His point.
He tells us of a field of wheat being sabotaged by an enemy who secretly planted weeds in it.
And when these weeds grow, they look just like wheat.
Our human eyes can’t tell them apart.
By the time wheat and weeds grow to where we can tell the difference -
they are so tangled, that if we pull out the weeds, we also lose the wheat.
Jesus is the sower that always plants good seed - the wheat.
The devil and our own sinfulness plant the weeds.
The wheat and weeds grow together - until God separates them at the harvest.
Now, It’s complicated to live in a world of wheat and weeds, isn’t it?
We want to be able to easily separate them.
To put them into neat little boxes.
And we do that all the time.
We classify people as “good” or “bad”, as “wheat” or “weeds”.
We judge their hearts.
We decide who is worthy of our time, our love, and of mercy.
And in the process, we take the power that belongs only to God.
We forget we are not judges.
That only God knows the human heart.
That only God knows what He is doing when it comes to sifting the wheat from the weeds.
That only He knows our hearts, and only He can know the state of someone’s soul.
Now, I want to be clear.
That doesn’t mean that everything we see people do is okay
and that we should keep our mouths closed and just let God take care of it.
No.
Sacred Scripture tells us that we are His hands and feet.
It’s not wrong for us to state that certain actions are sinful.
Jesus commands us not to judge,
but he does command us to rebuke and correct someone who sins against us.
He doesn’t ask us to be a victim.
Now, there’s a difference between judging a behavior and judging the state of someone’s soul.
Only God can judge someone.
Only He knows their backgrounds, wounds, thoughts, and motives.
But we can and must rebuke and correct.
And when we do so, we need to do it from a place of love and care for the other person -
the way Jesus would -
the way Jesus commands us to do.
We live in a world of tangled weeds and wheat.
Sin and holiness - side by side, even in this Church.
Sinners, including me, in these pews and at this altar.
While the devil works tirelessly planting more weeds.
If we allow the weeds to lead us away, we’re giving the devil exactly what he wants.
We need to have patience with each other and ourselves.
We all need to lead from a place of love first. The way Jesus does.
We all want to pull up the weeds.
But Jesus tells us that if we do that - we risk tossing out the wheat.
We risk tossing out even ourselves!
Ultimately, this parable should be reassuring to us.
Because each of us has a soul.
And our souls, themselves are wheat and weeds together.
We all need God’s grace.
This should remind us to be humble in how we approach others.
And it’s why Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation - Confession.
We must bring our wheat and weeds to Jesus in confession.
He clearly sees which is which.
Through a priest, He gives us absolution and removes the weeds.
We don’t have the ability to do that for ourselves or anyone else.
If we try to - we do more damage than good to the crop.
He will handle the weeds.
He’s got this.
We must take advantage of confession, especially if we have not been in a while.
We must pray for our family and friends, that they will let the sower do His work.
That they do not ignore the call to conversion.
We must pray for our enemies, who we often see as weeds and not wheat.
We must never give up praying for their conversion.
And we must never give up praying for our own!
We are all wheat and weeds together.
Thanks to the mercy and patience of God,
Let us pray that His harvest will be abundant and full of wheat.
That we may all be gathered safely in His barn,
And that we do not end up tied into neat bundles for burning.
Amen.
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