Saturday in the Sixteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 24, 2021

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. 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 my barn.’ ”

If we consider this parable from the point of view of the early Galilean Christians for whom St. Matthew wrote his Gospel, we can understand the Lord as speaking of the Jews who would follow him and the Jews, mainly the Pharisees and Sanhedrin, who would persecute them for doing this.  For the Galilean Christians, an urgent question was why the Lord Jesus, now in heaven, did not simply “pull up” these weeds so that the wheat could grow in peace and be fruitful in security.  The Lord’s answer would have demanded faith to hear: “If you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.”  The Lord would not intervene to end the persecution, with its confiscation of property, ostracism, beatings, and murders.  And yet, there is a hard wisdom in the reason for permitting this: the truly faithful grow strong in persecution.  The Lord provides consolation in that the persecution would come to an end one day, at the end of the world, and at that time perfect justice would be done: the just would be “harvested”, fully grown in their faith, and brought into the “barn” of heaven, while the wicked would be “tied together in bundles” and burned, and not for a time, but forever.

The Lord’s lesson on Divine Providence is meant for us today as well.  The practicing Christian stands surrounded by people who live thoroughly pagan lives and who celebrate as good what humans had always before held as wicked.  For very many, these are the “weeds” that surround God’s “wheat”, and which threaten to choke them with the temptations to despair and surrender.  We pray for their conversion and our perseverance, knowing that they may reject the grace God offers them, and that their persecution of us may continue throughout our lives.  At the same time that we pray for them, we recognize that their lifestyles are godless and even malicious.  To fortify ourselves against them we ought, first, to pray continually; to regularly associate with fellow believers; to study the Scriptures, the doctrines of the Church, and the lives of the saints; to go on pilgrimages to holy places, if possible; and to practice such devotions and pious practices as we are drawn to.  We would also find comfort and strength in spending time with inspiring art depicting the Lord, his Mother, and the saints and listening to good music, especially Gregorian chant and the sacred music of composers such as Palestrina, Vivaldi, Haydn, and Mozart.

Wheat is destined for greatness — in fact, to be changed into the Body of God at Holy Mass.  If we persevere a little while amongst the inevitable weeds of this life, we shall share in the glory of Christ our Lord in heaven.