The wheat and the weeds
Today’s first reading describes the rite of the covenant, by which Israel became God’s chosen people with whom God made a blood compact, whereby they became his blood relations.
By taking the risk to be with us, he obliges us to take the risk of faith to seek him and to be near to him. Christ will raise this covenant to a deeper level and make it everlasting.
All around us, but in our hearts as well, weeds are growing together with the wheat – the bad with the good. This is life, and it is not easy to take. We see first of all the weeds growing in the garden of our neighbor, and we want him to pull them out. But we should look into our own hearts as well. What to do? To pluck out the bad as best as we can. And not to be upset that, after all, we are not entirely good. We have to live with it in faith and hope and leave it all in the hands of God.
Reading: Exodus 24:3-8
So Moses went to the people and told them everything God had said—all the rules and regulations. They all answered in unison: “Everything God said, we’ll do.”
Then Moses wrote it all down, everything God had said. He got up early the next morning and built an Altar at the foot of the mountain using twelve pillar-stones for the twelve tribes of Israel. Then he directed young Israelite men to offer Whole-Burnt-Offerings and sacrifice Peace-Offerings of bulls. Moses took half the blood and put it in bowls; the other half he threw against the Altar.
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it as the people listened. They said, “Everything God said, we’ll do. Yes, we’ll obey.”
Moses took the rest of the blood and threw it out over the people, saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which GOD has made with you out of all these words I have spoken.”
Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30
He told another story. “God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn. When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form, the thistles showed up, too.
“The farmhands came to the farmer and said, ‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it? Where did these thistles come from?’
“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too. Let them grow together until harvest time. Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and tie them in bundles for the fire, then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
Prayer
Lord our God, you know it:
our hearts are divided,
torn between good and evil.
Give us clear eyes to look
into our own hearts
rather than in those of our neighbor
and to accept that we are not as good
as we like to be.
Make us grow up to become more like him
who was your perfect image and our model,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.