Week 16 Sunday (Year A)

Readings: Wisdom 12:13,16-19; Psalm 86; Romans 8:26-27; Matthew 13:24-43

In the gospel reading for today Jesus offers three agricultural metaphors for the kingdom of heaven. Perhaps, to be more precise, at least for the first of these parables, it is 'the kingdom of heaven on earth' he is talking about, in other words the Church. Good and evil grow alongside each other in this stage of the kingdom's history. The 'puritan' temptation can be strong, at times very strong, the desire to root out the evil and purify the Church, make it to be only good like the heavenly Father in whom there is no shadow of darkness but only light.

But acting on such desires is not wise, Jesus says, because inevitably rooting out the evil will lead to undermining the good also. It is as if he were to say 'leave the work of separating to those who are expert in that work', 'leave the work of discerning between good and evil to those who are equipped to make such judgements'. Here he assigns the task to the angels, they are the harvesters of the parable who separate the wheat and the chaff at the end.

We might have thought that we had ourselves gained that ability to discern through eating the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It gives us experience of both, eating from that tree, in the first place in ourselves, and it is the confusion that this sets loose in us that makes it difficult for us to see now where to draw the line. Who are you to judge your neighbour? Who am I to judge anyone else when I cannot manage it for myself?

Best to leave judgement to God who sees more profoundly, who knows all things, and whose power, as the first reading says, is made perfect in mercy. The wisdom of the farmer in the parable is an expression of that mercy - give things time, be patient, wait. In another parable Jesus talks explicitly of the gardener's patience: 'give it another year, then we will see'. 

The second reading, from Paul's letter to the Romans, is along the same lines. God knows our weakness, not just in regard to discerning good and evil, but also in regard to praying (which may actually be simply another way of talking about the same thing). So the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. It is the Spirit who knows thoughts and discerns intentions, and he will intercede on our behalf. The harvesting angels will be working under the supervision of the same Spirit.

The other two parables then testify to the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church. In spite of its many limitations and failures, and in spite of the evil that invariably gets entangled in its roots, it becomes a great tree in which the peoples of the earth can take refuge. The final parable is more culinary than agricultural, perhaps. The presence of the kingdom, at this stage of its history, is like yeast working its effect in flour. Small, quickly disappearing, it yet works a powerful effect in the whole thing. So holiness, wherever it is found, good people, wherever they are found, are working God's purpose out in the world.

We do not know for now where the lines are to be drawn. But we do know that holiness will make present in our world even now, however mixed in with other things it might continue to be, the kindness and patience, the mercy and even the power of God.