I do a lot of weeding! Where do they come from! I feel empathy for the man in today’s Gospel who says about his weed-choked wheat field, “an enemy has done this!” The growth images of last Sunday are present again this Sunday in three parables Jesus tells. The wheat survives the weeds and is harvested. The little mustard seed grows into a large plant. And the yeast added to bread dough leavens the whole thing. But Matthew puts first the parable about weeds tying to choke out the wheat, indicating its importance. That parable says that, yes, we can grow more mature in every way; we can grow to completion, but there will be weeds. For me, weeds seem to represent two things. Our life, it seems, is never without difficult people in it. I’d rather get rid of them, like the parable servants who want to pull the weeds out of the wheat. But as I do the inner work needed to try to accept and love the difficult people in my life, I change for the better. Weeds also represent for me the incomplete spiritual tasks I have. No matter how advanced in years or learned or wise we are, there are weeds in our hearts that impede our spiritual joy. And just when I think I have rooted one up, another appears! How about you?
– Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia