Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Wheat Or Weed, Which One Are You?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Parables are invented stories meant to communicate deep spiritual truth. They are puzzles designed to engage the listener in active thought. During his public ministry, Jesus used parables. Now, not all his parables were explained and interpreted. Like the parable of the sower, the parable of weeds among the wheat is vividly explained by Jesus. But before we venture into the interpretation of the parable, let’s recount the story itself. From the lips of Jesus we hear of a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was sleeping, an enemy entered his field and sowed weeds in it. Then the two began to grow side by side. Having noticed the appearance of the weeds among the wheat, the field owner’s servants ask him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?” The master replies, “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest” when harvesters will collect the weeds, tie them in bundles and then set them on fire. As for the wheat, they will be gathered and stored away in the owner’s barn.” 

After dismissing the crowds and going into the house, the disciples came to Jesus and asked for an explanation of the parable. Replying, Jesus offered a direct and simple interpretation: “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, (that’s Jesus himself), the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.” I tell you, this parable makes me nervous. If you are serious about your eternal destiny, you cannot treat this parable with kid gloves. By the way, many of us, in our passion and zeal to get things right will waste no time in uprooting the weeds and setting them on fire. No serious farmer or gardener will take the advice of Jesus and allow the weeds compete for space and nutrients with their plants. But Jesus is not talking about plants, he is speaking about human beings. He’s speaking about the two kinds of people found in the world and in the church. 

But why should evil be allowed to coexist with good? Because some goods would not exist unless paired with certain types of evil. In heaven, this principle would not hold. But here below, in our finite and sinful world, it is simply the case. Certain goods would not exist without a certain form of struggle, resistance, and even wickedness. Think of a child going to school for the first time. I remember taking my younger brother to school for the first time. The anxiety and difficulty he experienced as I took him from the world that he knows to this other unknown world was  enormous. He cried profusely from our home to the school. As he cried and wailed, some passerby wondered if it was the right thing to drag him along to school. Some even asked me to take him back. I remember leaving my family just a few months after the death of my father to live in a dormitory of a minor seminary. The anguish I felt each morning when the rising bell rings at 5:30 am was so deep. I left home when the whole family was still grieving over the death of my father; add to it, I had to live in an unfamiliar environment, surrounded by strange people and had to abide by new rules I considered very strict. Oh! I hated being there. Throughout my first year there, I cried and wanted to go home with my mother or grandmother each time any of them visited me. It was traumatic and a very painful experience for me. But it was that initial “necessary evil” that eventually led to my ordination to the priesthood. Without that suffering, deeper maturity, experience, and ultimately joy will simply not be possible. Suppose my mother surrendered to my suffering and opposition to stay in the dorm of the minor seminary? Suppose a mother listened to the wailing and opposition of her child to leave home, go to school and stay in an unfamiliar environment and with people he or she does not know? Maturity, experience and success of later years would not be attained. More to it, without the presence of certain evils, we are most likely not going to appreciate the good. I never knew that the greatest wealth God can give me is good health until I started studying Clinical Pastoral Education in a Californian hospital and spending seven to eight hours five days a week attending to the spiritual care of the sick. Hunger and starvation strengthens one’s appreciation of having food at his or her disposal. Loss of job and joblessness will raise your value of having a job. The presence of some evils amplifies and intensifies our appreciation and valuation of the good. 

With that in mind, let’s now look at the weeds. Who are they? How can we identify them? The weeds represent people who don’t allow the word of God to penetrate and take root in their lives. When God’s word is preached and taught, it falls on the path or on rocky ground or on thorns. They don’t provide the good soil needed for the seed of the word of God to germinate, grow and bear plentiful good fruits. They oppose and fight from within. They are disruptors. Whatever they are interested in, they go all in, and don’t listen to the pastoral guidance of constituted parochial authority. They adopt “my way or the highway approach.” They fight dirty and fight to finish. In the process, they harm the smooth operation of the church, weaken the zeal and interest of others who want to serve, damage people’s character, and cause serious disunity in the house of God. Like garden weeds, they take up space, compete for nutrients in the soil and sunlight and make it harder for the wheat of God’s gardens to flourish. Like garden weeds, these human weeds invade and disrupt the house of God. They suck some of the oxygen and energy that ought to be used for the propagation of the faith. But the good news is that the good Lord knows them. In his own time, he will act as the great Gardener. At the end of the explanation of the parable, Jesus warns, “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” If what weeds do in the garden— disruption of the ecosystem is what you do in the community, in your family and in the church, Jesus warns you to desist. Allow the word of God to penetrate your heart. There is enough grace to flip you from being a weed to being a wheat. 

God bless you!