Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The servants’ suggestion in today’s Gospel parable of the weeds and the wheat makes a great deal of sense. Why should the weeds be allowed to grow alongside the wheat, using up valuable nutrients in the soil and crowding out the good crops? Does it not make sense to pull up the weeds, even if it means some of the wheat is lost? But the master in today’s parable takes a different approach. None of the wheat is to be uprooted, and so the weeds are allowed to remain until the harvest.
At times we are like the servants in today’s parable. We would like for God to remove all suffering and evil—a good desire in itself—but, understandably, we would like it to happen now, without having to wait for the resurrection at the end of time. Yet this is not what God does. The Father judges with clemency and governs the world with leniency (cf. Wis 12:18); Jesus chooses to join us in our sufferings; the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness (Rom 8:26). God works with humanity patiently, not magically.
Today, let us reflect on the patience of God, both with ourselves and with others, praying for the grace to work patiently with him in preparation for the final harvest.