16th Sunday Kingdom of Heaven (Weeds & Wheat)

 

The kingdom of heaven is like…

In the parable of the weeds among the wheat, Jesus confirms what we already know to be true: evil exists in the world. We see evidence of it all around us.

Kansas the wheat state. We produce more wheat than any other state in the US. To get rid of weeds, farmers can’t drive tractors through the fields to spray the weeds before harvest, otherwise the wheat would be crushed by the tractors.

It’s also impractical for people to walk through the fields and pull up the weeds. Even doing that can cause the wheat to be trampled upon and ruined. Some farmers use crop dusters, which are airplanes, filled with chemicals used to kill weeds. But most farmers don't use them because they don’t want the chemicals to contaminate the wheat when it’s harvested. The majority of farmers allow the weeds and the wheat to grow together. Then when harvest comes, the combines separate the grain from the chaff. The grain goes into the bin and the weeds fall to the ground.

In the world today, sometimes it seems as if evil is winning. We can wonder, will the weeds eventually choke out the wheat and overturn the field of God’s kingdom? Will the weeds destroy the wheat and ruin the wheat harvest? When Jesus went through His passion, it seemed as though all was lost. At the moment of His death on the Cross, it appeared evil defeated God’s kingdom of love and truth. But paradoxically, it was then evil was defeated. Death was destroyed by the death of Christ.

The fact is, by His death and resurrection, Jesus won the victory over evil. In the end, the angels of God will sort the good from the bad and evil will be destroyed forever. Someday God’s kingdom will reign over all the earth.

Meanwhile, how can we hasten its coming? It’s significant that after telling the first parable about the weeds and the wheat, Jesus then tells two more parables about the kingdom of heaven.

He said, the kingdom of heaven like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large bush. He said, it’s like a little yeast that leavens a whole loaf of bread. These are hopeful images. God’s kingdom isn’t static. It begins in many small ways and then grows and grows.

Each of us has a part to play in helping grow God's Kingdom! With every prayer, with every act of faith, with every good deed, with every Rosary, with every hour spent before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in Adoration, you will build the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Making time for prayer, reaching out to someone in need, helping the poor, speaking up in defense of life—in these ways and more, you can participate in growing God’s kingdom. Yes, they can seem like small things. But so are the mustard seeds and the little pinch of yeast. And so fields of amber grain grows into a mighty wave to be harvested.

So don’t get discouraged by the evil you see on television or the internet or in the newspaper and don’t give up hope. Believe that your small acts of faithfulness really do make a difference. And taken together with other believers, they become a mighty force in choking out the weeds of this world. By our holy life we lived during our time on earth, we will produce great fruit in God’s kingdom. But those who do evil and unrepentant, who are the weeds of this world and who did not love God nor will neighbor be cast into the fiery furnace to suffer the eternal fire of hell.

Let us turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the great woman of faith and ask our heavenly Mother to help us to grow in our faith, to live out our faith, and plant our faith in the world, so that the Kingdom of Her Son, will come on earth as it is in heaven.