Wheat, Weeds, and the Fields of Our Lives

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well….

His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull [the weeds] up?’

He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest.’”

-Matthew 13:24-26, 28b-30a greetings of Peace in these summer days!

This summer, as we moved on Sundays through the Gospel of Matthew, we heard a series of parables about the “kingdom of heaven” from the middle of the gospel. As we know, Jesus often used references from the natural world in his teaching and parables. Such was the case on the Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time when we heard what is often called, “The Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat” [Matthew 13:24-30].

In his Angelus Address that afternoon in Saint Peter’s Square, Pope Francis offered a beautiful and challenging reflection on this gospel which I believe merits our prayerful attention and discernment. I would like to share some of this address with you.

Pope Francis reflects on this text by seeing “the field” in the parable as representing three different kinds of “fields” in our human experience.

The Field of Our World

First, Jesus’ reference to the farmer’s field can be seen to represent the world we live in. In this field, as in our world, God sows good things (the “wheat”) and the evil one sows bad (the “weeds”). Both the wheat and the weeds, the good and the bad, grow up together in the field, our world. And, our Holy Father says that this is the reality that we see “in the news, in society, and even in the family and the Church.” The good and the bad are present together.

So, the question is how to deal with the evil that is around us. The temptation for us, he says, is to want to tear out the bad weeds immediately and to make a “clean sweep” in order to protect the good wheat. But, Pope Francis says that Jesus warns us against this approach in the parable: “one cannot create a perfect world, and one cannot do good by hastily destroying what is bad, because this results in even worse effects.”

The Field of Our Heart

Pope Francis does believe that there is a “field where we can clean up: it is the field of our heart.” In this field as well, there are wheat and weeds, good and bad, and it is from these personal fields of our hearts that the good and bad moves out and expands into the larger field of our world. Within the field of our heart, we have the freedom “to cultivate it properly” – to protect and nurture “the delicate shoots of goodness,” and “to identify and uproot the weeds, at the right time.”

We have an excellent spiritual tool to guide us in this process. It is called an examination of conscience. The Pope describes this as “seeing what happened today in my life, what struck my heart and which decisions I made. And this is precisely to verify, in the light of God, where the bad weeds and the good seed are.” (An Ignatian prayer practice called the examen, which incorporates such daily discernment, is a most helpful spiritual practice. You can learn more about the examen at the Loyola Press website, “Try the Daily Examen.”)

An essential piece to this, for me, is the virtue of humility. I am able to know in this field of my heart, like Pope Francis, that "I am a sinner." And, from this place of humility and spiritual vulnerability, I can open myself to pray for the grace of conversion and for God’s mercy to bring healing and forgiveness.

The Neighbor's Field

The third “field” Pope Francis offers for our spiritual reflection is “the neighbor’s field.” In this field are “the people we associate with every day, and whom we often judge.” As he notes, it is very easy for us to identify the “weeds” present in our neighbors’ lives and actions. But, he encourages us to take a different approach by seeing “the good grain that is growing!”

This is, I believe, the path of Christian discipleship. We seek to bring the love and compassion of Christ to others, and to see in them the face (and goodness) of Jesus. Saint Teresa of Calcutta is a model for us in this as she was able to recognize Jesus in his “most distressing disguise.” For her, this was his presence in the poor. For us, it may also be his presence in our family members, our co-workers, our neighbors, and even and especially in those who may hurt us and who stand against us. Even then we are to look for “the good grain that is growing.”

In an article which also reflects on this same Angelus Address, Malcolm Schluenderfritz offers a challenging way to read this parable in light of our current ecclesial context, and I will close with his wisdom:

It is easy to get swept away by the factions and divisions in the Church and adopt a ‘weedy’ outlook. Blinded by tribalism and a struggle for power, we come to see those who don’t agree with us as so many weeds. Naturally, they return the favor, and both sides set about ‘weeding’. If we keep this up, there won’t be a green thing left in the vineyard of the Lord! But as St. John Paul II said, we are an ‘Easter People.’ We are called to believe in God’s redeeming love and to imitate his forgiveness and renewal in our own lives. If we trust in God, we can be confident that he’ll bring good out of the evil of our turbulent times. We can let him take care of any weeding that has to be done, and instead focus on our job: showing the love of Christ to those around us. (“The Dangers of Weeding” / https://wherepeteris.com/thedangers-of-weeding/)

Deo Gratias! Let us remember, though, that if we want to cultivate the fields of life, it is important to seek first and foremost the work of God: to learn to see the beauty of what the Lord has sown, the sun-kissed wheat with its golden ears, in others, in the world and in ourselves. Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the grace to be able to see it in ourselves, but also in others, starting from those who are close to us. It is not a naïve perspective; it is the perspective of one who believes, because God, the farmer of the great field of the world, loves to see goodness and to make it grow to make the harvest a feast.

-Pope Francis, Angelus Address, July 23, 2023

Todd Graff is the Director of Lay Formation & RCIA for the Diocese of Winona-Rochester