One day, a parishioner asked her pastor: "Father, why doesn’t God simplify things for us? Can’t He bring about peace by keeping good people alive and eliminating all those who are evil?" The pastor took his turn to pose a question, "If you are the mother of ten children, five of whom are behaving well, and five of whom are giving you terrible headaches, will you eliminate your bad children?" Immediately, the woman said, "Of course not!"
The parable of the weeds tells us that God wrestles with the same situation when separating good from evil. In the parable of the weeds, Jesus presents the Kingdom of God as a growing reality, but not without threats and obstacles.
Jesus doesn’t mince words when He describes the reality of this world, affirming the co-existence of good and evil. At times evil seems to triumph over good. We hear bad news and frightening situations daily.
In our communities and families, we can notice “weeds” growing along with the wheat. Being human, we cry in anguish when evil seems to have the upper hand. We feel helpless and frustrated.
We live in an imperfect world.
But who makes the world imperfect? Is it the bad people surround us, or do we have a role in it?
We may be the reason why we lack perfection in the world and our families! So, perhaps we should think about changing ourselves before we expect others to change. When we turn toward ourselves, examine our thoughts and behavior patterns, and analyze our attitudes and values, we may find enough homework to do.
We may find we have enough of our own weaknesses to deal with, and conflicts to resolve, before focusing on
The parable of the weeds reveals God’s incomparable patience and kindness and the endless opportunities He offers to let the goodness in us grow and flourish. We must decide to let the seeds of goodness grow and eliminate those of evil.
When the good seeds eliminate the weeds of pride and selfishness, the seeds of God’s kingdom begin to germinate and grow in our families and surroundings.
Let us pray during this Mass that the Lord who planted good seeds may grant us insight into our thoughts and behavior patterns to help us analyze our attitudes and values so that the goods seeds in us can grow continually.
