16th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A

"...collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn, then gather the wheat into My barn"

Lectionary Readings for the 16th Sunday Ordinary Time, Year A
http://catholic.pcentral-online.net/lectionary/16th-sunday-a.html

The Word of God is sown into the world and into the minds and hearts of every man and woman. For those whose soul is open to God, the Word makes itself anchored in their being that in time, it grows and bears fruit in their lives. Like seed that is sown on good soul, it produces wheat that can feed people and benefit a lot of those who need to be nourished also.

However, the Word of God is not the only one sown in the world. We know that there is an Evil One who sows what is contrary to the Word of God. This is the seed that produces discord and strife, pride and envy, anger and malice, violence and greed, materialism and consumerism, and all those that are contrary to the values taught by the gospel. This can be likened to someone who is an enemy of the farmer, who while the farmer was asleep, sowed weeds in his field.

Thus is the reality of our world and the life we are immersed in. We receive good from God but the enemy of God, the Evil One, seeks to sow His evil also in us. Thus we see the mystery of good and evil fighting each other in the world today. Should the evil be rooted out? Should they be exterminated? The gospel infers the message that judgment ultimately is the authority of God and that it is not good to root out the evil at this present time because the good may be brought along with it. However, when the time comes for the Lord to judge, He will be the One to collect the weeds and bundle them up to burn, then gather all the wheat into His barn.

What is asked of us today is to be aware of the reality of both good and evil that is present in ourselves and in our contemporary society. We are to make sure that we do our part to support the mission of the Church to "sow good seed" in the field of the world. Let us take on the standard of Christ and belong to His army. He will give us the strength and the power to fight those who sow weeds and bad seed in the world. We pray that we shall be faithful to the Lord and to the Church, in the state of life He has called us, by living the gospel in word and deed.