In today’s gospel we heard about the seed, weed, Son of Man, devil, end of the world, harvest and so on. This is a parable of the kingdom. In this parable Jesus calls himself as son of man. The enemy is the devil. The time of harvest is the time of the end of the world. Good seed is the children of the kingdom of God. This parable is to hear. Who has ears, let him hear, said Jesus.
According to the interpretation of Jesus he himself is the one sow the good seed. The enemy is considered as the devil, the evil who spread malice.
The enemy works against the will of the Father of the house. The father of the house has many servants, friends, relatives and followers, who would fight against the enemy. When the activities of the enemy against house or land increases one should ask himself whether a fight against the enemy is profitable. When the crops and the weed grow together , it seems easier to to remove the weed with their root during crops.
Different characters and aspects of this parable show that our life from the birth to death is an important theme. Jesus tried to express the priority in life in oder to have a fulfilled life. What makes us happy is the point. Different temptations of life should be overcome.
I think Jesus advises us not to fight against the enemy in the early stage because the humans are not able to fight against evil. Different cruel activities of the evil in tribal communal and cruelties and problems we experience in different parts of the world make us to think that the evil acts very cruel than any human can think. Even small conflicts among the individual and groups prove that the evil can become unthinkably cruel and inhuman. Even many recent problems in the North Eastern part of India witness it. We have experienced many conflicts and problems in the name of religion, cast and culture. We experience that human become primitive and cruel. Civilisation is no more a concept for many.
Good and evil exit together. Similarly we can consider health and sickness, poverty and wealth, luck and suffering, loneliness and community or similar concept. Both belong to life. Let both be part of our life and let them be present together. We may not try to be always rich, always healthy, always lucky, always winning. Both are present in life and both go together.
If we experience only one of these two that is not normal in a human life. There will be a time of surprise on which we discern between good and evil. That is the day of harvest. Many things which appeared to us wrong and weed could enlighten us and work positively in our life.
God will differentiate the weed from the crops from our life and help us to be fulfilled. Let us be prayerful and believing. Jesus tells us through this parable that when we think of justice and injustice, good and evil we should deal with it in faith and confidence in God who will help us to discern.
Fr. Joseph Pandiappallil MCBS