Wheat and Weeds

“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.” (Matthew 13: 24-26)

During his homily this morning the priest mentioned that we often sow the seeds that become weeds. We can do this with what we watch on TV, listen to on the radio, see at the movie theater or look at on the internet. There are many things out there that go against our Christian beliefs and even if we are careful to avoid the things that are obviously wrong we can still hinder the wheat from growing by spending too much time “surfing the net” or parked in front of the TV watching mindless television instead of enriching our soil. We need to spend more time in prayer, more time studying scripture and more time giving of ourselves; living out our faith.

We allow the seeds from the enemy to be planted through sin. Things that we do that may not seem like much, the “little white lie,” quickly become out of control. One lie often leads to another. We may even be the one to plant the weeds in other’s hearts. I was once told that evil enters the world through my sin. I know there is evil in the world but to hear that I am an instrument in which evil enters the world was a wake-up call. “Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.” (Luke 17:1-2)

“’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.’” (Matthew 13:28-30)

Jesus allows good and evil to live side by side. At the time of our judgment; the two will be separated. Often times we wish that God would remove the evil from this world, but he knows that we all have good and evil within us. He gives us the chance to turn our lives around. We are also here to help one another get to heaven. When we overcome the temptation to fight evil with evil and forgive instead of holding onto the pain someone has caused us; offer kind words instead of returning hateful words with more hateful words; or give of ourselves knowing that our work will not be appreciated; we show the world what it means to live as Christ lived and we allow the light to overcome the darkness of sin.