Daily Gospel Reflection
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July 19, 2020
Jesus put before the crowds another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
“And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’
“He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
“The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
“But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
A close friend of mine is an organic farmer. He started his organic farm with the hope of providing local, ethical, sustainable, produce to people who care about their food. Like all farmers, he is always concerned about things that are out of his direct control (mainly weather related issues) but his worries are compounded by the small scale of his operation and his rigorous commitment to organic, non-GMO practices.
Most commercial farming relies on herbicides and pesticides to make large scale food production efficient and profitable. GMO (genetically modified organism) crops are even genetically engineered so that they can be sprayed with broad spectrum herbicides. These chemicals kill all plants they touch, except for the ones with the genetic modifications. For most farmers, weeding is a thing of the past.
But on a small organic farm, weeding is very much essential. Any time that I’ve been able to help out on the farm, that is what I’ve done. In this gospel passage, the master’s concern of disturbing the wheat by pulling the weeds certainly resonates with me. Many times have I brought up a young beet or a tender carrot as I have mistaken their greens for weeds.
In the gospel reading, the wheat and the weeds represent our final judgement. The weeds cannot be removed while they are growing and are sent to the fire after the harvest. But this passage makes me think of my whole life as a garden that I grow for God. There are things I wish to cultivate and things that must be removed. Weeding is tedious, thankless, repetitive, daily work. Even when it is done well it must be done again and again, forever on into the future. But, the work can be rewarding and doing it makes me stronger. Of course, this is the nature of confronting my own sinfulness. There is no broad spectrum herbicide for sin. Each sin must be found and rooted out individually. I will be weeding the garden of my life until the day I die. In the end, I hope that my faith has produced a good harvest that has fed many. And I hope that my many weeds will be cast aside so that I might be gathered into the master’s barn.
Prayer
You alone, Lord, know what is the wheat of our lives and what is the weed in our lives. Help us to be patient as the wheat and the weeds co-exist and grow together. Help us to trust in your work in our lives even when we don’t know which is which. Help us to entrust everything to your mercy until that day when you separate the weeds from the wheat. Help us to believe that you know what you’re doing and would never allow anything to harm us. We believe that you will turn everything into good in our lives. This we pray through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Saint of the Day
St. Justina and St. Ruffina were sisters who lived in late third-century Spain. They made their living by selling pottery, a trade they learned from their parents.
One day, a wealthy customer came in and made a generous offer for much of their earthenware. When they asked what his intention was, he told them that the pieces were to be used in pagan rituals. The sisters smashed all the pottery so that they would have no part in sacrificing to idols.
They were arrested for being Christians and for obstructing sacrifices to the gods. They boldly proclaimed their faith in Christ and were tortured and killed. During their torments, an idol was placed nearby with a bowl of incense—if they simply burned some incense to the idol, they would be released, but they refused.
It is possible that Justina was actually a male named Justus, but the historical record is unclear. The relics of both a St. Justina and St. Justus rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Justina, you were tortured and killed for refusing to associate your livelihood with sin—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of Sts. Justina and Ruffina is in the public domain. Last accessed March 19, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
