Lectio Divina – 12
Fr Martin Kallungal
“He put another parable before them, “The kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.While everybody was asleep his enemy came, sowed darnel all among the wheat, and made off. When the new wheat sprouted and ripened, then the darnel appeared as well. The owner’s labourers went to him and said, “Sir, was it not good seed that you sowed in your field? If so, where does the darnel come from?” He said to them, “Some enemy has done this.” And the labourers said, “Do you want us to go and weed it out?” But he said, “No, because when you weed out the darnel you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn” (Mt 13:24-30).
The parable of wheat and weed, which is found in Mathew’s gospel alone, is not only preached but also explained by Jesus (Mt 13:37-43). As Jesus Himself explains, the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man and the enemy who sows bad seed, when everyone is asleep, is the devil. The good seeds are the children of God and the bad seeds are the sons of the wicked one. Darnel is a poisonous weed native to the Middle East. Since this weed resembles immature wheat it is possible that one plucks out wheat, by mistake, if one is asked to pull up all weeds before the harvest time. Let us take note of a couple of points here: First, the world is the field where the word of the Kingdom is sown. But, in the world there is evil, too. This knowledge should not, however, lead us to classify some people, events, things, etc, as evil over against some other good ones. We are not supposed to be fault-finding machines because we are not harvesters; rather, we are servants who must take care of the field, and nothing more. Unlike plants, human beings can change, and, therefore, any premature judgment on a person is unwarranted. We need to restrain from fault-finding not because we think that evil has right to existence just as good does. On the other hand, it is because we don’t want to cause any harm to the good, even inadvertently. Second, the word of the Kingdom has been sown in our personal life-world. But, there are also evil thoughts in our hearts that compete with the divine inspirations. These unwholesome thoughts find way to our hearts when our conscience and right reasoning happen to fall asleep. Devil works when things go blurred and dark in our mind. So, we need to allow the Word to keep our hearts bright, vigilant and radiant always.
Thank you, Lord, for this insightful par able. Allow me to join your disciples and understand straight from you the true intent of this parable. Lord, I admit that I have been terribly intolerant towards imperfections. I recall the moments I even behaved like a militant moralist. Sorry, my Lord. I learn, today, that I still have to learn to live with ambiguities. Teach me, Lord, to find and build on goodness even when I am surrounded by disturbing evils.
Practice Christian mindfulness so that none of our interior movements go unnoticed. Allow the Holy Spirit to envelop our hearts lest devil finds any place to sow the seeds of evil thoughts. Contemplate on the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, homes and the world.
Tell yourself often that you are not the harvester but only a labourer. Find out some practical ways to be more proactive than being a fault-finder. Learn the art of deferring judgments on others.
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