Wisdom 12:13, 16–19; Psalm 86; Romans 8:26–27; Matthew 13:24–43
The Evil Within
Dear friends, today we celebrate the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We continue to learn from Jesus about the nature of the Kingdom of God. In today’s Gospel, Jesus explains to His disciples the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, to his disciples. Our theme today, “The Evil Within,” is taken from this parable. You may agree with me that many of the troubles we have in our families and communities do not come from far away but within. Let us look closely at the parable.
The story unfolds in several stages:
- A farmer sowed good seed in his field.
- During the night, an enemy secretly came and sowed weeds among the wheat.
- When the crops began to grow, the servants discovered the weeds.
- They immediately asked the owner for permission to pull them out.
- The owner wisely refused, fearing that uprooting the weeds would also destroy the wheat because their roots had become intertwined.
- Instead, he instructed them to let both grow together until harvest.
- At harvest time, the wheat and the weeds would be separated: the wheat gathered into the barn, and the weeds burned in the fire.
The parable becomes even more meaningful when we understand the nature of the weeds Jesus refers to. The weeds closely resemble wheat during the early stages of growth. Moreover, once wheat has been sown, weeding is extremely difficult because the plants grow very close together. Their roots become intertwined, making it easy to uproot healthy wheat while trying to remove the weeds. This practical farming reality forms the basis of Jesus’ teaching.
Jesus then explains the meaning of each symbol in the parable:
- The sower is the Son of Man—Jesus Himself—who proclaims the Good News of the Kingdom.
- The field is the world, the communities in which we live.
- The good seed represents the children of the Kingdom, those who receive God’s word and strive to live righteous lives.
- The weeds represent the children of the evil one, those who oppose God’s work and allow themselves to be used for evil.
- The enemy is the devil, whose mission is to sow division, confusion, and destruction.
- The harvest is the final judgment, when every person will give an account of his or her life.
- The reapers are the angels, who carry out God’s judgment with perfect justice, showing no favoritism and accepting no bribes.
This parable reflects the reality of every human society and every Christian community.
There are people who sincerely work for peace and justice, who carry out their responsibilities faithfully, who care for their families, who serve their communities with integrity, and who use their positions of leadership to promote the common good. There are parents who lovingly raise their children, public leaders who genuinely seek development, and religious leaders who faithfully serve God’s people rather than seeking popularity or personal gain.
At the same time, there are those who constantly create division, spread lies, exploit others, pursue wealth and power through dishonest means, or destroy peace wherever they go. Having allowed the evil one to influence their hearts, they tirelessly work against the progress and well-being of others.
Jesus teaches us that God sees both groups, yet He responds with remarkable patience. God, our loving and wise Father, gives people time to repent and change.
Often, however, we behave like the servants in the parable. We quickly want to identify, expose, and remove those we consider “weeds.” In doing so, we sometimes inflict great collateral damage upon innocent people. Today’s Gospel calls us to resist this temptation. Instead of responding to evil with hatred or revenge, we are invited to overcome evil with goodness, patience, and perseverance.
The devil continually looks for those whose faith is weak so that he may turn them against their own families, communities, and even the Church. Such people will always exist, even within our Small Christian Communities and our parishes. Their actions can discourage others and hinder the growth of the Christian community.
None of us should assume immunity. Any one of us can become an instrument of division if we are not vigilant. The evil one is subtle. He often disguises evil as something good, convincing us that we are defending truth or justice while, in reality, we are causing others to stumble.
Rather than hastily uprooting those who have gone astray, we should allow our patience, prayer, and Christian witness to become instruments of their conversion. Our lives should inspire repentance rather than condemnation. If people reject every opportunity to repent, then the day of separation will come. Judgment belongs to God alone.
This is precisely the message of today’s first reading. God is the only perfectly just Judge. His justice is inseparable from His mercy. He governs the world with fairness while always leaving room for repentance and conversion.
Jesus concludes this section of His teaching with two additional parables: the mustard seed and the yeast (leaven). Both remind us that the Kingdom of God often begins in small and seemingly insignificant ways, yet it steadily grows until it transforms everything around it.
We should therefore never become discouraged in our Christian mission. Even when we feel insignificant, powerless, or overwhelmed by challenges, God continues His work through us. What matters is that we remain faithful, patient, and persistent.
We should also be slow to judge others. Before pointing at the weeds around us, we should honestly examine our own hearts. Sometimes we assume that others are agents of the evil one while we are merely victims. Yet without careful self-examination, we too may unknowingly cooperate with evil. One of Satan’s greatest strategies is to disguise evil as good. For this reason, we must continually form our consciences through Scripture, prayer, sound teaching, and the guidance of the Church so that we can recognize his deception.
Finally, as we ask God today for patience and perseverance, let us remember the comforting words of St. Paul in the second reading. Left to ourselves, we do not even know how to pray as we ought. It is the Holy Spirit who prays within us and intercedes for us according to God’s will. He knows our deepest needs better than we know them ourselves.
May the Lord grant us patient hearts, discerning minds, and steadfast faith so that we may remain faithful wheat in His field until the day of harvest.
Have a blessed and fruitful Sunday.
Fr. Lawrence Muthee, SVD
(See also: www.svdkentan.com)
SVD JAMBO KENTAN 