RBWords

     The gospel scriptures for the daily liturgy over the past several days have been taken from chapter thirteen of the Gospel According to Matthew that tradition calls "the discourse on the parables."  The evangelist presents a pattern of a parable, followed by reactions and explanations.  Those who believe in Jesus understand the parables; those who don't believe see the parables as riddles.  The gospel passage for today features one of the explanations.  The parable itself appeared last Saturday (when I chose the first scripture from Jeremiah for reflection), but the explanation gives us the outline.  It is about the wheat and the weeds and final judgment, a theme that will reappear in Matthew in dramatic fashion in Mt. 25:31-45.

     Those of us who garden know that weeding is one of those thankless but necessary tasks, and it is all the more thankless when one accidentally pulls out the very plant one is trying to protect in an effort to get rid of the encroaching weed!  When this parable is applied by Jesus to the task of preaching the kingdom of Heaven, he simply tells the disciples that the task belongs to God and not to them.  There will be an ultimate harvest with an ultimate disposition for the just and the unjust.  The temptation to use our own judgment is ever present, and there are plenty of examples in our own church's history of declarations as to who is or is not "saved."  This parable reminds us that our job is to plant and grow and bear fruit for the kingdom and leave the harvest to the angels!  AMEN