By our fruits we will be known, not by what name we have called ourselves.

“The devil plants evil where there is good, trying to divide people, families and nations. But God… looks into the ‘field’ of each person with patience and mercy: he sees the dirt and the evil much better than we do, but he also sees the seeds of good and patiently awaits their germination.” – Pope Francis: Excerpt from a homily on 7/20/14

Gospel Text: (MT 13:24-30)

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds.

“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.”’”

Weeds are an inescapable part of our being, growing alongside our good wheat.  Jesus came to show us how to be more wheat than weed, how to be stronger in our “wheatness” than in our “weediness”.  When we nourish our wheat, giving all its manifestations the love it needs to prosper, there is less room for our weeds to flourish. We don’t need to so much pull out the weeds (although clearly we do at times) but make the wheat so strong that the weeds wither and die.  Then, at the final harvest, our wheat will be dominant and our weeds will be minimal.

And so my prayer today is for the grace to cultivate my wheat.