The following are excerpts of a sermon given yesterday by the Rev. Marcus Pollard at St. Veronica Catholic Church in Chantilly.
Today we’re going to look at the second installment of the Lord’s parables about the kingdom of God, the church on earth.
Last week, one of the things we examined was the general nature of parables. They have at least three common traits: First, they are a form of symbolic teaching using familiar images to convey truth on a variety of levels. Second, the parables say something about the Lord and His plan for His people. Finally, the parables also typically say something about the listeners (or readers) of the parables.
This week we have three more parables to examine. Rather than go through all three of them superficially, we will restrict our inquiry to the first. We’ll go through that parable like we did the one last week. First, we’ll look at the symbolism the Lord used. Then we’ll see what the Lord was saying 2,000 years ago to His audience. Finally, we’ll look at how that message applies to us today.
The first parable from today’s Gospel reading describes the simple scenario of a farmer’s field of wheat being ruined by an enemy’s work of sowing weeds. The symbols are pretty straightforward. Fortunately, Jesus offers us His own personal (and divine) interpretation of the parable. For His audience, first the apostles and then the crowd, He says that the parable describes the reality of there being a combination of souls, saved and damned, at the end of time, His own Second Coming. In addition, the parable alludes to their final disposition, in heaven and hell, respectively.
Now we come to making an application of the parable to us today.
First, we do need the reminder that the Second Coming will occur. It will occur as a universal historical event, perhaps today … perhaps in a million years; we don’t know. In addition, we know that until the Messiah comes for all humanity the last time, He will be coming for each of us individually, at the moment of our deaths. Depending on how He finds us, whether in a state of grace or a state of mortal sin, that determines how we end up in eternity.
In any event, the parable is also applicable to us if we think in terms of our whole person being the field in which the wheat and the weeds are sown.
The wheat can be seen as the combination of natural talents and virtues, good circumstances and supernatural graces God gives us. They are all meant to contribute to our growth in goodness or holiness. All the Lord asks is that we work with what He’s given.
By contrast, the weeds are the combination of personal disorder, evil circumstances and particular temptations each of us experiences. To the extent that we cooperate with these, the evil, the weeds, take root in us, develop and bear fruit. In both cases, with the weeds and with the wheat, we determine what grows by what we cooperate with — disorder or grace.
The parable did not address itself to the passage of time, in the growth of the seeds. What our Lord did address was the need to wait before the weeds and wheat could be harvested. We know, as our Lord did, that the seeds (good and evil in us) normally take time to develop fully. Each choice we make contributes to the growth of the weeds or the wheat.
I have used the parable both in confession and in spiritual direction to make two points. First, no small choice toward vice or toward virtue should be discounted. Second, the best way to get rid of evil is not to attack it directly, i.e., try to pull out vice. Rather, it is better to crowd vice out with the growth in virtue.
I would ask you to consider the weeds and the wheat in your own life. First, on the large scale, are you now, to the best of your knowledge, among the wheat, in a state of grace, or among the weeds, in a state of mortal sin? If the latter is true, please do not receive Holy Communion until you have come to confession. And please come to confession as soon as possible.
On the small scale, what is the combination of weeds and wheat that are growing in the garden of your soul? With the wheat, thank God and continue to develop the virtues God has already begun in you. With the weeds, the sinfulness, ignore them and focus on the wheat, the opposite virtues, instead.
To the extent that we continue to cooperate with God’s grace and truth, the wheat will grow, the weeds will get thin and weak, and we will be better able to help our brothers and sisters with their gardens as they ask us for our assistance.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.