Fr. Michael Williams

In today’s parable Jesus tells us, “The Kingdom of Heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field [but] while everybody was asleep his enemy came and sowed darnel all among the wheat”. Jesus will go on to explain that He is the One who sows the good seed, while the devil is the enemy who sows the bad seed.

If we look around the world today we can clearly see that Jesus, the Son of Man, is sowing good seed throughout the world. Wherever good exists, that is the result of God’s action in the world. And the fruit of the God’s Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness, and self control” (Gal 5). Wherever these virtues exist, it is the result of the Son of Man sowing good seed. It’s important that we let the Lord produce this good fruit within us.

But we also know that there is much evil in the world. The devil is sowing his seed for sure. The devil’s seed produces murder, lies, hatred, impurity, greed. We can also see these vices existent in the world. It’s important we don’t let them take root in our own lives. And certainly to repent of them if they do.

In the parable of the wheat and the darnel, Jesus helps us to understand that good and evil exist side by side in the world. They are growing up together in the field of this world and anyone with eyes can see this.

If we think of the bombings in London ten days ago, we can see clearly good and evil side by side. Evil reared it’s ugly head when four men blew themselves up, taking so many innocent victims with them. However, we saw good sprout almost immediately, in the dedication of the emergency services who sought to save life, and not destroy it.

Or if we think of the great work of the medical profession in this country, which promotes healing and health. This can be seen as good fruit. And yet within the medical profession in this country, there also exists a group of people who seek to destroy life, through abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. This can be seen as evil fruit.

Or if we think of prisoners of war, who are maltreated and humiliated, we can say this is evil. But if we think of those who campaign for the dignity of prisoners to be respected, then we can say this is good fruit.

In so many situations then, we can see good and evil growing together. This should not surprise us however as Jesus has told us it will be this way, until the time comes for the good and the evil to be separated once and for all at ‘the Judgement’. The good will be gathered up into God’s heavenly household, whilst those “who provoke offences and all who do evil”, and don’t repent will be doomed through their own choices.

A seed when it is planted has no choice, it will grow into whatever plant the seed type is. Wheat seed become wheat; darnel seed becomes darnel. We are different as we can choose what be want to be. We can be wheat or we can be darnel; we can choose the good or the evil. So let us pray that we will be fertile ground for the Son of Man when he sows his seed, so that our lives will produce a harvest of goodness that will be gathered up into the Lord, when the time comes for the Lord to reap the harvest.