The Wheat and the Weeds
Wisdom 12:13, 16-19; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43
This week, as I was preparing my homily, one of my high school teachers came to mind. His name is Fr. Arthur Anderson. Now although I went to high school on Long Island, Fr. Anderson grew up on a farm here in New Jersey, in Allamoooochy, as he liked to exaggerate it. Never could I imagine sitting in that classroom so many years ago that someday I would be living in Allamoooochy, in Panther Valley, part of which is actually located on some of the very land that was part of the Anderson Family farm. Fr. Anderson was my favorite teacher; he was everybody’s favorite teacher, for he taught with wisdom, yet humor . . . with passion, yet gentleness. He was indeed beloved, and I guess subconsciously, I tried to model my own teaching style after his. Of course some of his repertoire of antidotes came from his experience growing up on that farm in Allamoooochy. Like this one:
One day, a man purchased an old, run-down, abandoned farm adjacent to his with plans to turn it into a thriving enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse falling apart, and the fences collapsing all around.
During the first day of work, Fr. Anderson stopped by to bless the man’s work, saying, “May you and God work together to make this the farm of your dreams.”
A few months later, he stopped by again to call on the farmer. Low and behold! It’s like a completely different place – the farmhouse was completely rebuilt and in excellent condition, there was plenty of cattle and other livestock happily munching on the feed in well-fenced pens, and the fields were filled with crops planted in neat rows. “Amazing!” Fr. Anderson said. “Look what God and you have accomplished together!”
“Yes, Father,” replied the farmer, “but remember what the farm was like when God was working it alone? Glad I could help him out!”
Seems like we all sometimes want to help God out, don’t we, just like the farmhands wanted to help their master in the parable Jesus told about the wheat and the weeds. There Jesus tells about a man who plants wheat in his field. In the course of the night, an enemy sows weeds among the wheat. When the plants begin to grow and the weeds appear, the master's slaves are anxious to go and start tearing out the weeds. But the master orders his workers to let all the plants grow, good and bad alike. At the end of the growing season the master will separate the wheat from the weeds, and then the weeds will be destroyed.
You know, I read somewhere that there are over sixty definitions of what a weed is. Here’s my favorite: A weed is a plant, not only in the wrong place, but intends to stay. That’s also a pretty good description of the evil in our world. We have the good and the evil side by side. God is like the master in that parable. He lets good and bad exist side by side in the world and even in the Church. It’s shocking to consider that God lets evil people damage our world and damage our Church. And what’s more, God seems to do nothing to stop the actions of murderers, rapists, robbers, abusers, liars, cheats, embezzlers, adulterers, racists, bigots and criminals of every sort. They often prosper and frequently avoid human punishment. God doesn’t purify the Church of its sinful members. Hypocrites, corrupt politicians, pro- choice legislators, child abusers, the divorced and remarried, unfaithful clergy and religious, the morally challenged, and those who make money, fame, pleasure and power the goals of their life, are numbered among the members of the Catholic Church. The names of good men and women and the names of notorious sinners appear next to one another in the baptismal registers of our Church.
To us there’s no room for the weeds; there’s no room for those whose sexual conduct is embarrassing or whose ethics are questionable; there’s no room for those who treat people unkindly or who have committed shameful sins. How often do people, like you and me, cry out when confronted with horrible situations and horrible people, "God why don't you do something?" But no matter how much we plead, the Master has a different idea and he doesn’t budge from his position. He tells us that this is not the time for such a radical response—he wants to wait until the harvest, and then, and only then, he, and only he, will do the separating. “But there are so many weeds in the world today, right here, right now—can’t we do anything; can’t we do something?” Today’s parable gives us our answer. God lets the good and the bad grow together. Despite all of our dedicated hard work, there won’t be a perfect yield—it will include both the good and the bad. But eventually, God will judge and punish . . . in His time, not ours; in His way, not ours. Until that judgment occurs, good and evil will exist side by side.
Today’s gospel addresses some of the harsh realities of life. It teaches us that we live in an imperfect world where evil is present as an unavoidable part of life. There are evil persons and evil situations which we cannot change. There is an evil force in the world which is beyond our power to fix. We might want our gardens, and our world and our Church to be free of weeds. But that has not been the case since the Garden of Paradise described in the Book of Genesis. It didn’t take long for the weeds to appear in that Garden and they have been appearing ever since. However, the parable also reassures us that unsolvable problems will be properly handled in the end by God who alone has the wisdom, the power, and the right to judge. The time will come when the sorting of the weeds from the wheat will be absolute and final, harsh and decisive. And make no mistake about it—we will all be judged.
Should we take Jesus at his word, or is he just using scare tactics? We live in a world that justifies everything. We live in a world where many believe there are no moral absolutes and we have no right to impose our moral standards on anyone else. We live in a world that has diminished the person of Jesus to a one-dimensional easy-going surfer dude. We live in a world where no one takes responsibility for their own actions, that likes to point fingers and make excuses. Should we take Jesus seriously? Well, let me answer this way: The parable that we heard last week and the one we’re presented with today are the only ones that come with Jesus’ personal explanation. It seems to me that maybe he did this to make sure we got it right, so there’s no chance for misinterpretation. Those two parables are also the only ones that come with Jesus’ personal commentary: “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” In other words, Jesus is saying. “If it applies to you, take heed. You’ve been forewarned!”
But we also live in a world where we’re not used to waiting. We live in a world of fast food, instant communication, and immediate gratification. We want it now. And yes, we’re made in the image and likeness of God . . . but His ways are not our ways. And thank God for that. Jesus is telling us that if sinners are pulled-up and torn out now, we could easily destroy what is good. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the difference between a good plant and a bad one, especially when it can act both ways. There will be a time for separation, judgment, and punishment, but that time is not now. Unlike God, we cannot know people’s hearts; where their lives might take them, or their potential for good. We are sinners living among sinners and we cannot judge too harshly and condemn too quickly. All the evidence isn’t in and the game is far from over. How many of us have left Yankee Stadium or CitiField in the 6th or 7th inning in frustration, convinced that the Yanks or Mets would lose, only to miss the walk-off home run, the game winner, in the bottom of the 9th?
That’s the good news for us in this Gospel; really good news. No strike of lightning is sent earthward the moment we sin. God’s response unfolds slowly. We want a God whose vengeance is swift. But aren’t we glad we have a God who is patient? Aren’t we grateful when we look back on our mistakes that we have the time to change and the time to make amends, that He gives us time to work things out and make things right? Most of us here today, to be sure, were weeds, and some of us are still weeds. We try to hide our secrets because we’re ashamed of what we’ve done; we sometimes struggle to trust another’s integrity because we’ve compromised our own; and we still play games with the truth and separate our words from our actions. And there are days when we still slip back into our weed-like behavior. Yeah, if you look carefully, you can still find the weeds in each of us.
In the final analysis, today's message to us is about trusting God to be God: a God of justice . . . but also a God who isn’t measured in retribution, but in mercy; a God who is eager to forgive, long after we’ve given up on it; and God who is willing to wait, until the very last moment, for us to turn things around and make things right.
“Not so fast; all the evidence isn’t in yet. And the game is not over.” And thank God for that.
