“Let them both grow till the harvest”

It seems that evil spreads and goodness has a hard time existing.  We are troubled by the presence of so much evil, and at times, we are also angry—angry at the world—and perhaps…a little angry with God.  We ask ourselves:  “Why does He allow evil to exist like this?  Why does He not do something to set things right?”  Perhaps, we can find part of our answer in today’s gospel.  It is the story of a man who sowed good seed, but at night, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat.  Of course, the next morning, it was not noticed.   But, as the weeks went by, soon it became clear that there was wheat, good wheat, but weeds also…certainly much more than there should have been.  “Sir, was it not good seed you sowed in your field?”  “It was, no doubt about that,” the owner of the field simply said.  “Some enemy has done this.”  To the suggestion that the weeds should be taken out, the reply came:  “Let them both grow till the harvest.  Let them both grow side-by-side, the wheat and the weeds, for a certain time.  Then, matters will be set right.”

The manner of the handling by the owner of the field tells us about God’s way in the face of evil in our world.  Often, it is one of waiting.  “Leave things as they are for the present.  I will make things right when the right time comes,” sums up the way of the owner of the field—and the way of God.  We may find that this explanation does not help us much.  We would rather do as the servant suggested…we would weed out the bad and keep only the good.  But, in doing so, we might not be as right as we think we are!

God is God.  Often, we mistake His patience for blindness or weakness; His gentleness for lack of courage; His mercy for softness… We blame Him for doing nothing, as He appears not to be caring at all.  We will never really come to understand much about God, unless we first try to understand, in some small way at least, His tremendous love for each one of us.  And that includes the greatest sinners.

Yes, God is love.  Because He is so, He can wait.  He can hope.  He can be patient…  Why is it so?   We know that weeds can never become wheat.  Crops do not change from bad to good.  But people can, and do change.  The God who loves knows this and He keeps waiting and hoping and being patient.   And this is the message of our first reading today:  “Your sovereignty makes you lenient to all.  Disposing of such strength, you are mild in judgement, you govern us with great leniency.”

God is lenient.  This means that He understands.  He makes allowances for our human weaknesses.  For, God sees into the heart of each one of us, and there, He sees our most secret thoughts and desires.  And there, hidden somewhere…He often finds something that is good, true, and right.  And as long as a person’s heart is not totally evil, He is ready to continue hoping and waiting that this person will one day change and come back to Him.

God understands that sometimes we are slow to understand.  Some of us need time.  We are not evil, just weak…and at times a little stubborn, but He will wait.  The fact is, that God never treats any of us as we deserve.  He hopes and waits for us to change.  He is lenient and patient.  He knows that it is possible for weak and sinful people to become what God intended for them.  This is what we see when we look at the saints.   In the beginning, they lived lives that were sinful and far from God’s wish for them.  But then, one day something happened to them and they became changed…from sinners…to saints-in-the-making.  We think of St. Paul, of St. Augustine, of Mary Magdalene, etc.  Indeed, our God is slow to anger, slow to judge and punish, slow to cut-off anyone from His friendship.  He allows people to grow, He gives them the time to understand His ways, and then…to change.  Let us ask God to help us to become a little more as He is.