THE JUDGMENT OF WHEAT AND DARNEL

SUNDAY, SIXTEENTH WEEK IN ORDERINARY TIME

Wis 12:16-19; Ps 86:5-6,9-10,15-16; Rom 8:26-27; Mt 13:24-43

The Justice of God and Our Corrupted Nature

We often discuss the justice of God. But we usually consider or understand it through the lens of human justice, which is inadequate for understanding divine justice. God’s justice bears the identity of God, for it is also God. By this, we mean that the revelation of divine justice is also the revelation of God, who is infinite in all perfections. God’s justice is infinite and perfect because it reveals God. Therefore, we are unable to fully comprehend it because we do not fully understand the nature of God. Our knowing is imperfect in this mortal existence, which implies that we know the justice of God only imperfectly. Though divine justice is infinite and perfect, it is essentially good because God is essentially good. God judges us with full knowledge of who we are and what we have done. This knowledge is not given to us, which causes us to falter and misunderstand the divine justice in all his judgements. The incompleteness and imperfection of our knowledge should bring us to stand in silence, awe, and adoration at the revelation of God’s judgment. The same faith with which we contemplate the word of God ought to extend to our contemplation of God’s works, his judgment, and the justice contained therein. This attitude ought to characterise our approach to whatever God does within and without us.

Attaining this angelic worship of God brings us nearer to our goal of becoming angels of God, Most High. These holy creatures are perpetually in the presence of God, gazing in admiration on the face of God and on all his works, in creation and in the redemption of man in Jesus Christ. Their wonderment is what the book of wisdom shares with us. “There is no god, other than you, who cares for everything, to whom you might have to prove that you never judged unjustly. Your justice has its source in strength, your sovereignty over all makes you lenient to all.” The divine justice comes with the goodness of God and his compassion, for he knows how weak we really are without his support. Unlike the judgment of man, God’s judgment and his punishment are for the purpose of our correction and not to destroy us. Because his divine intention is to correct us, his judgment reveals our flaws and leads us to understand our common weakness. “By acting thus, you have taught a lesson to your people how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men, and you have given your sons the good hope that after sin you will grant repentance.” Thus, we understand that divine justice and punishment come with the grace of repentance; they are all packaged together for our good. His word and grace guide us to true repentance and the blessed reward promised to all.

Our ignorance of God’s infinite goodness is the source of our stubbornness in sin. As a loving Father, God never wills the destruction of his creatures. All his works are meant to foster right thinking and living in us. The psalm sings of this loving kindness of God, saying: “O Lord, you are good and forgiving, full of love to all who call. Give heed, O Lord, to my prayer and attend to the sound of my voice.” Thus, the Holy Spirit of repentance is always in attendance when God punishes or disciplines us, to inspire prayer and supplication to the Father. Saint Paul says the Spirit himself inspires the prayers we say to God, for we do not know what to expect or ask. “The Spirit comes to help us in our weakness. For when we cannot choose words in order to pray properly, the Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words, and God who knows everything in our hearts, knows perfectly well what he means, and that the pleas of the saints expressed by the Spirit are according to the mind of God.” These pleas of the saints, inspired by the Spirit, come from what they suffer and go through in life.

The sighs and pleas from the saints are expressions of their desire to be set free from the bondage to sin and evil. These sighs and pleas increase as they suffer the effects or punishment due to the corruption of sin. The parable of Jesus Christ reveals that the corruption of sin is the seed of the devil among God’s creatures. To yearn for evil is contrary to our nature, which is God dwelling within us. But the yearning of the saints is as a result of their reunion with the will of God the Father for the good of all his creatures. “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, the darnel appeared as well.” It is the darnel of the devil that causes the corruption of the seeds of God in the world. Just like the good owner of the farm, God treats us, sinners, patiently and leniently in order to elicit repentance from us. “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.” Left to grow together, the darnels influence the wheats, for they serve for the purification of the saints, while the wheats influence the darnel by serving as a channel of divine goodness and mercy to the sinners. The saints proffer the word of God to them. Therefore, God’s justice, mercy, and punishment all dwell together here on earth, for the salvation of the saints and condemnation of the unrepentant souls.

Let us pray: Show favour, O Lord, to your servants and mercifully increase the gifts of your grace, that, made fervent in hope, faith and charity, they may be ever watchful in keeping your commands. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.