Those of you who have a garden, whether vegetables or flowers, know what weeds are. I spend some time every week pulling vines out of our hydrangeas, hedges and other plants. Weeds are pesky and almost unrelenting. But it’s better that I pull out the weeds than put herbicides into the ground to kill them off – at the same time killing bees and other pollinators and slowly poisoning the ground.
Coming from Nazareth, Jesus would know about gardening, for most families then would have had a vegetable garden. Thus, he told parables like The Weeds among the Wheat.
Of course, the weeds that Jesus is talking about in the parable are not the ones in the ground, but the ones that infect us and our society. As far as I know, the only sinless ones were Jesus and his Mother Mary. I am certainly not in that league. As St. Paul says, we all have our weaknesses. We may have to deal with anger or judging others, we may eat or drink too much, we may be selfish or prideful, we may be greedy or lustful, we may be slothful or waste time, we may neglect to pray while having plenty of time for social media. There are often a number of weeds in our lives.
As Paul says elsewhere, there are three sources of temptations and sin: the world (i.e., our culture), the flesh, and the devil. Each one can play on our weaknesses – whether for acceptance, for pleasure, for a temporary good feeling, or for getting ahead of others. Often, we don’t recognize what is happening until the sinful weakness becomes a real problem in our lives or in the way that we treat others.
As I like to say, thank God for God, for as the Psalm says, “Lord, you are good and forgiving, … merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and fidelity” (Ps. 86:5). Since I and many of you have weeds among our wheat, I thank God that he accompanies us through prayer, the sacraments – especially Reconciliation – and the encouragement of good people to do some weeding in our lives, to begin to root out those things that separate us from God, others, and ourselves. It is seldom a matter of days, but of years. But Jesus walks patiently alongside of us, just as he did the disciples.
As the Book of Wisdoms says, “You judge with clemency, … and you give your children [us] good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins” (12:18-19).
This is why you and I need to pray to the Holy Spirit to help us first to come to see our failings, then to help us overcome our weaknesses, and through prayer and the works of charity begin to grow after the pattern of Christ. The Spirit gives us grace – the mustard seed – that continues to grow in us, helping us to see, to weed, and to grow until we put ourselves aside and come to lift up others through our love and good works.
So many of the saints, such as Peter, Paul, Augustine, Ignatius, Francis of Assisi, Mary Magdalene, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and more recent holy persons such as Dorothy Day, needed weeding from various sins and failings, but God is patient and works to bring about a harvest in us. Let us pray with them, for they give us hope that God’s grace will transform us, too, into saints. Perhaps not ones who have a day set aside for us, except for All Saints Day – but little saints, friends of God, brothers and sisters of Jesus who learned to follow his ways and who, relying on prayer and the Holy Spirit, slowly weeded out the worst of our sins and learned compassion for others.
Lord Jesus, here we are, your family, the ones you came to show the way. We thank you for your patience with us. We thank you for your mercy and love. With the help of your grace, may the mustard seed of our faith, hope and love grow ever greater. May we rely on your mercy and forgiveness to weed away our sins and failings. May we grow in trust and love of you and of all our brothers and sisters, so that we might be leaven in our families, in our communities, and in our world. We ask this of the Father, in your name, Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesuit Father John Michalowski is the parochial vicar at St. Peter Parish in Charlotte, where he delivered this homily.