The kingdom of heaven (the Church) is likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men slept, his enemy came, oversowed weeds among the wheat, and left. When the plant had grown and became laden with grain, the weeds appeared also.
The servants asked, “Shall we go and gather it up?” And he said, “No, when you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat also. Let both grow together until harvest; then I will tell the workers, ‘Gather the weeds first, tie them into bundles to be burned; but gather the wheat into my barn’.” (cf Mt 13:28-30)
Let us meditate on the explanation of this parable which Jesus gave as requested by the Apostles.
“The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed are the people of the Kingdom; the weeds are those who belong to the evil one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of time and the workers, the angels.” (cf Mt 13:37-9)
“The Son of Man will send his angels who will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and will cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!” (Mt 13:41-3) These latter words Jesus used frequently to fix the attention of his listeners.
We may also understand by the field in which the good and bad seed grew together any group of spiritual persons. The wheat or good seed represents the fervent members who, filled with the spirit of their vocation, are always advancing in virtue until they attain perfection. The weed, or bad seed, denotes the lukewarm too often mixed up with the good seed even in the holiest groups.
The latter are those who by their difficult character, are a trouble to others and cause them suffering. Or by their irregularity and evil influence, prevent the good from growing in virtue, or draw the weak into disorder.
Practical reflections emerge. First, if we must govern others, take care not to ignore faults or beginnings of irregularity under the pretext they are trivial. Evil, like the weed, is always growing; and becomes difficult to uproot.
Second, if we are responsible only for ourself, and unhappily see some of our friends more or less resemble those whose sad situation is as described, do all we can to make them better; but do not be filled with an impetuous and bitter zeal, begging God that he would deliver us from them.
If it pleases God to keep them, they can greatly help on our spiritual progress by trying our patience, charity and zeal. There is always a hope they may see their faults, and become models of penance and fervor.
Third, examine ourselves and beg God to give us light in our behavior towards others. See if, in some respects, we are not the weed about which we are so impatient and unmerciful. The words of our Lord, “Why see the mote in your brother’s eye, and not see the beam that is in your own eye?” (Mt 7:3) is but too often verified. Self-love so terribly blinds us about ourselves.
After these reflections, let us see what we must reform in our judgments of others, or our own conduct, and make resolutions accordingly.
Ref: Cf “Practical Meditations” by a Father of the Society of Jesus, 1964, p490-92
Evangelization
There is no true evangelization unless the teaching, life, promises, kingdom, and mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God, be proclaimed. The vigor of the faith of millions of people will depend on the living consciousness of this truth.
So we must confess Christ in the face of the world’s history, with profound, lively conviction as Peter did: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” (Mt 16:16) This is the Good News, unique in a certain sense; the sole Gospel and “even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel not in accord with what we delivered to you, let a curse be upon him” (Gal 1:8).
Evangelization in the present and in the future may not cease from affirming the Church’s faith: Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, became man to dwell among mankind and, through the power of his ministry, offer it salvation, God’s greatest gift.
It is from this faith in Christ, from the bosom of the Church, that we draw our capacity to serve peoples, to imbue their cultures with the Gospel; to transform hearts, to humanize systems and structures. Silences, omissions, mutilations, or inadequate stressing of the integrity of the mystery of Jesus Christ, which causes movement away from the faith of the Church, cannot constitute the valid content of evangelization.
In accomplishing my task of evangelizing all mankind, I will not grow tired of repeating: ‘Have no fear!’ Open up even more, open the doors completely to Christ! Open the gates of states, economic and political systems, the vast fields of culture, evangelization and development to this saving power.
Ref: Cf “Prayers and Devotions from Pope John Paul II”, pp280-81
Make Peace Your Aim
To reverse the current trend in the arms race involves a parallel struggle on two fronts: 1) immediately and urgently reduce progressively and equally their armaments; and 2) a more patient but necessary struggle at the level of the consciences of peoples. ...
Peace must become the goal of all men and women of good will. Unhappily, sad realities cast their shadows across the international horizon. They cause the suffering of destruction, such that humanity could lose the hope of being able to master its own future.
Peace is not a utopia, nor an inaccessible ideal, nor an unrealizable dream. War is not an inevitable calamity. Peace is our grave duty, our supreme responsibility.
Ref: Cf “Pope John Paul II, Breakfast with the Pope”, 1984, 7
• Our Lady of Bows, in London. It is related that this image, having been carried away by a storm, together with more than six hundred houses, in the year 1071, it fell uninjured with such violence, that it broke into the pavement, and sunk more than twenty feet into the earth, whence it was never possible to draw it out. — Willel. Malmesbury, lib. iv., in Willel., 2. (“Catholic Gems or Treasures of the Church” Historical Calendar; www.bethlehemobserver.com)
• Our Lady of Bows, London (1071). (www/divinewill.org/feastsofourlady.html); (www.iskandar.com/ourlady/ourladyfeasts.html); (www.miraclehunter.com/marian_apparitions/calendar/index.html); (maryfest.htm / www.starharbor.com/santiago/m_feasts.html); (http://mariedenazareth.com)
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