From: Matthew 13:24-30

The Parable of the Weeds

[24] Another parable he (Jesus) put before them, saying, “The kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field; [25]
but while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the
wheat, and went away. [26] So when the plants came up and bore grain, then
the weeds appeared also. [27] And the servants of the householder came and
said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it
weeds?’ [28] He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to
him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ [29] But he said, ‘No; lest
in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. [30] Let both
grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Ga-
ther the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the
wheat into my barn.’”

The Mustard Seed; The Leaven

[31] Another parable He (Jesus) put before them saying, “The Kingdom of
Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his
field; [32] it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the grea-
test of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and
make nests in its branches.”

[33] He told them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a leaven
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened.”

[34] All this Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed He said nothing to
them without a parable. [35] This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet:
“I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter what has been hidden since the
foundation of the world.”

The Parable of the Weeds Explained

[36] Then He (Jesus) left the crowds and went into the house. And His disci-
ples came to Him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
[37] He answered, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; [38] the
field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the Kingdom; the
weeds are the sons of the evil one, [39] and the enemy who sowed them is
the devil; the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. [40]
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close
of the age. [41] The Son of Man will send His angels, and they will gather out
of His Kingdom all causes of sin and evildoers, [42] and throw them out into
the furnace of fire; there men will weep and gnash their teeth. [43] Then the
righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has
ears, let him hear.”

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Commentary:

24-25. “The situation is clear: the field is fertile and the seed is good; the
Lord of the field has scattered the seed at the right moment and with great
skill. He even has watchmen to make sure that the field is protected. If, af-
terwards, there are weeds among the wheat, it is because men have failed
to respond, because they—and Christians in particular—have fallen asleep
and allowed the enemy to approach” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”,
123).

25. This weed—cockle—looks very like wheat and can easily be mistaken for
it until the ears appear. If it gets ground up with wheat it contaminates the
flour and any bread made from that flour causes severe nausea when eaten.
In the East personal vengeance sometimes took the form of sowing cockle
among an enemy’s wheat. Roman law prescribed penalties for this crime.

28. “When the careless servants ask the Lord why weeds have grown in his
field, the explanation is obvious: ‘inimicus homo hoc fecit: an enemy has
done this.’ We Christians should have been on guard to make sure that the
good things placed in this world by the Creator were developed in the service
of truth and good. But we have fallen asleep—a sad thing, that sluggishness
of our heart while the enemy and all those who serve him worked incessant-
ly. You can see how the weeds have grown abundantly everywhere” (St. J.
Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 123).

29-30. The end of this parable gives a symbolic explanation of why God allows
evil to have its way for a time—and for its ultimate extirpation. Evil is to run its
course on earth until the end of time; therefore, we should not be scandalized
by the presence of evil in the world. It will be obliterated not in this life, but af-
ter death; at the Judgment (the harvest) the good will go to Heaven and the
bad to Hell.

31-32. Here, the man is Jesus Christ and the field, the world. The grain of
mustard seed is the preaching of the Gospel and the Church, which from ve-
ry small beginnings will spread throughout the world.

The parable clearly refers to the universal scope and spread of the Kingdom
of God: the Church, which embraces all mankind of every kind and condition,
in every latitude and in all ages, is forever developing in spite of obstacles,
thanks to God’s promise and aid.

33. This comparison is taken from everyday experience: just as leaven gra-
dually ferments all the dough, so the Church spreads to convert all nations.

The leaven is also a symbol of the individual Christian. Living in the middle
of the world and retaining his Christian quality, he wins souls for Christ by
his word and example: “Our calling to be children of God, in the midst of the
world, requires us not only to seek our own personal holiness, but also to go
out onto all the ways of the earth, to convert them into roadways that will car-
ry souls over all obstacles and lead them to the Lord. As we take part in all
temporal activities as ordinary citizens, we are to become leaven acting on
the mass” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing By”, 120).

34-35. Revelation, God’s plans, are hidden (cf. Matthew 11:25) from those
who are disposed to accept them. The Evangelist wishes to emphasize the
need for simplicity and for docility to the Gospel. By recalling Psalm 78:2,
he tells us once more, under divine inspiration, that the Old Testament pro-
phecies find their fulfillment in our Lord’s preaching.

36-43. While making its way on earth, the Church is composed of good and
bad people, just men and sinners: they are mixed in with one another until
the harvest time, the end of the world, when the Son of Man, in His capacity
as Judge of the living and the dead, will divide the good from the bad at the
Last Judgment—the former going to eternal glory, the inheritance of the
saints; the latter, to the eternal fire of Hell. Although the just and the sinners
are now side by side, the Church has the right and the duty to exclude those
who cause scandal, especially those who attack its doctrine and unity; this
it can do through ecclesiastical excommunication and other canonical penal-
ties. However, excommunication has a medicinal and pastoral function—to
correct those who are obstinate in error, and to protect others from them.

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

Mass Readings

First reading	Jeremiah 7:1-11 ©

The word that was addressed to Jeremiah by the Lord, ‘Go and stand at the gate of the Temple of the Lord and there proclaim this message. Say, “Listen to the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who come in by these gates to worship the Lord. The Lord Sabaoth, the God of Israel, says this: Amend your behaviour and your actions and I will stay with you here in this place. Put no trust in delusive words like these: This is the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord, the sanctuary of the Lord! But if you do amend your behaviour and your actions, if you treat each other fairly, if you do not exploit the stranger, the orphan and the widow (if you do not shed innocent blood in this place), and if you do not follow alien gods, to your own ruin, then here in this place I will stay with you, in the land that long ago I gave to your fathers for ever. Yet here you are, trusting in delusive words, to no purpose! Steal, would you, murder, commit adultery, perjure yourselves, burn incense to Baal, follow alien gods that you do not know? – and then come presenting yourselves in this Temple that bears my name, saying: Now we are safe – safe to go on committing all these abominations! Do you take this Temple that bears my name for a robbers’ den? I, at any rate, am not blind – it is the Lord who speaks.”’

Psalm	Psalm 83:3-6,8,11 ©