Do you pray regularly? If you pray regularly, how often do you find it difficult to pray? I don't mind admitting that frequently I find intercessory prayer difficult. When someone is very ill or badly injured, at least as a first approach, I pray for healing. As the situation unfolds, perhaps taking some unexpected turns, do I stubbornly keep praying for the same outcome? Of course, the caveat for all prayers of petition and intercession is that God's will be done. It is rarely easy to know God's will. It becomes readily apparent that my will is not God's will.
Even when a situation has reached its conclusion, I can't always say that God's will was accomplished. No doubt, sometimes this is just denial but at other times it is not. I don't perceive God as a cosmic micromanager. Sometimes the answer to that most human of questions "Why?" is "I don't know." This is especially when true when the question "How could God let this happen?" is raised in the face of some undeniably evil or bad situation.
Silence is not only important but necessary when praying. Sometimes, all I can manage in prayer is a groan or a sigh. According to Saint Paul, this is just fine. Because we have been given the Spirit, it is the Spirit who searches to the very depths of our hearts and brings our prayers and longings that are too deep for words before God. In other words, sometimes what we might be tempted to view as our worst prayers become our most eloquent.
This focus on prayer seems to segue nicely into today's Gospel. Weeds do not only grow alongside wheat in the Church but in our hearts. Whenever issues of judgment arise in Jesus's teaching it becomes clear that judgment is reserved to God alone. You and I are in no position to judge. The answer to Pope Francis's rhetorical question "Who am I to judge?" is because I am not God, I am in no position to judge another.
Illustration of wheat and tare, which is which?
Jesus's moral teachings are most fruitfully taken in the first person singular. In fact, it is a mistake to take them any other way. Whose sins do you confess? Your own and nobody else's. Some of the most deeply rooted weeds that tend to grow in our hearts are religious in nature. For this, too, we need the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, shining light into the dark places, bringing what is found there into the light.
What is the yeast to which Jesus refers except the Spirit lovingly poured into our hearts? What is the mustard seed but the seed of faith planted by the Holy Spirit?
Once harvested, wheat becomes flour. Flour in turn is often made into bread. This allows us to give thanks saying, "Blessed are you Lord God of all creation, for through your goodness we have received this the bread we offer you: fruit of the earth and work of human hands, it will become for us the bread of life." Along with the divine word, the bread becomes the seed of faith. We must not be content to just "nurture" the seed. We have to let it grow. Plants can die from too much care and cultivation. When planted, sown, and properly nurtured, this seed of grace must become not just a large plant but also a fruitful one.
Many Western Christians read the writings of Saint Paul in a very attenuated manner, that is, in an antinomian way. In other words, Paul is read in such a way that it lets the Christian reader off-the-hook. While it may be true that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, we have to be clear that faith without works is dead. To wit: dead faith is no faith. If faith without works is no faith then it has no power to save. Our often peculiar reading of Paul, rooted in a history of bad translation and even worse exegesis, must be overcome. This bad reading of Paul's letters is tantamount to sowing weeds in the wheat field.
It is important to note that Paul does not teach a different Gospel than Jesus taught. The inescapable core of the one and only Gospel is salvation through good works. A fruit-bearing plant can look healthy and yet be fruitless (ever tried growing tomatoes in an unsuitable spot?). A Christian can look pious and yet lack works of charity, failing to give alms, which means failing to help those in need. Just like the fruitful plant needs rain and sunlight, we need God's grace to be fruitful.
The teachings of Jesus Christ are more than a challenge. When understood properly, these teachings serve as a provocation. Being a Christian means letting yourself be provoked. By attending to the Spirit and letting the Spirit attend to you your concrete, that is, corporal works become works of the Spirit.
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