“The
church must suffer for speaking the truth, for pointing out sin, for uprooting
sin. No one wants to have a sore spot touched, and therefore a society with so
many sores twitches when someone has the courage to touch it and say: “You have
to treat that. You have to get rid of that. Believe in Christ. Be
converted.” - Archbishop Oscar Romero
(Gospel text: Mt 13:36-43)
Jesus dismissed the crowds and 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."
A once-popular bumper sticker read:
“If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” The saying referred to
many things: government corruption, unjust wars, neglect of the marginalized.
It was an attempt to stir people into action. And that’s a good thing if we’re
being motivated by humility and love. It’s not so good if we’re motivated by
harsh anger. That only leads us to destroy rather than create, to tear down rather
than build up.
As we see in this parable, God is the
only sure judge between right and wrong - not the media, not society, and
certainly not us. Seeing all of creation from beginning to end, he alone is
able to sort everything out with perfect justice. He alone can tell all the
“good seed” from the “weeds.” So we don’t need to go around uprooting every
weed we think we spot in his garden. Judgment is God’s job, not ours!
Unfortunately, we all have the
capacity to appoint ourselves as judge, jury, and executioner and sometimes
with disastrous consequences. Who knows if the person we just pounced on wasn’t
on the verge of a spiritual breakthrough? We may have just pushed him or her
farther away from God instead of closer to him. More likely than not, by
misjudging someone we have also planted weeds of pride, anger, and isolation in
our own hearts. This is why Jesus warns us that the measure we give to other
people really does become the measure we will get back (Matthew 7:2).
If we ask the Holy Spirit for His wisdom,
patience, and understanding and apply those virtues to those who have wounded
us or whose views may offend us, we will see the greatest results. Jesus showed
mercy to the people who nailed him to the cross. He can teach us to have that
same kind of mercy, that same kind of patience, and that same kind of hope and
trust.
If we can treat every person as a
child of God, someone whom Jesus loved enough to die for, our words will bring
healing and light instead of hurt. As long as we are planting seeds of love, we
can be sure of a good harvest.
The
secret to this state of being is outside ourselves ironically. Without God, to
love in this way described above is absolutely impossible. That is why Jesus
gave us His Church, the Sacraments, and His Mother. Only through grace can we
see God in everyone and if we can see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, we can
see Jesus in our neighbor and truly love them.
There
simply is no other way!
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