Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: "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."'"
He proposed another parable to them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the 'birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.'"
He spoke to them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened."
All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables. He spoke to them only in parables, to fulfill what had been said through the prophet: I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world.
Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field." He said in reply, "He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear."
Homily
Our world is a strange mixture of good and evil. God sows wheat in the field, but the Devil sows weeds. Still, God can bring good from this situation. If good is to prevail, though, it has to go through trials and struggles. The disciples were impatient, just like us! We’d like to just get rid of everything opposed to God’s Kingdom, but impatience is a very bad counselor. Jesus, however, gently reminds us to “Wait and see.”
This parable offers us two different approaches: the way of the patient, prudent and wise master, and the way of the impatient servants. The field is both the world and our own heart, where the battle between good and evil is fought. This fact could easily discourage us, but Jesus asks us to see all things through the eyes of hope. This parable shows us the true face of God, who is “kind and rich in mercy”. Never forget that in the end, good always prevails.
Our modern world wants immediate results, at all costs and with the least amount of effort possible. But this is not how things work! We’re always rushing into things and rashly judging others to be good or evil. It’s frightening to see how quickly evil spreads while goodness makes no progress. It’s so easy to fall into pessimism and despair! We have such a hard time waiting for solutions to our problems that we begin to question God. Often we don’t recognize his face in others and in the world, and so we run the risk of disfiguring his beautiful face.
With our rich Catholic faith to help us, we have to remake our image of the merciful face of God. Maybe the image we have is a product of our own state of emotion. But Jesus is the image of the Father. He tells us, “He who sees me sees my father; he who hears me, hears my father.” Athenagoras of Athens reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the “sympathy of God.” Our merciful God has a huge heart, and he always gives us the chance to repent and turn to him.
Together with this parable Jesus presents two others that complement it: the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven. He reminds us that the Kingdom has a seemingly insignificant beginning, but that it’s capable of revolutionizing the world. As always, the small ones among us help us to see God.
The first Christians used to say, “Among us there are mostly simple people, unlearned and unable to demonstrate the truth of our doctrine with sophisticated arguments; nevertheless we strive to show it with our lives.” And from the writings of St. Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr of our Church, we are reminded, “It is better to be a Christian without saying it, than to say you’re a Christian and not be it.” And so we ask our merciful and loving God for the grace of converting ourselves into the “Word of God for the world.” It’s a small step, but that’s all God needs to turn the world upside down—or from his perspective, right-side up.