Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Let them grow together until harvest;

then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters,
“First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning;
but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

What is it that makes us so quick to judgment? I seem to look at everything through the lens of me. I like this; I don’t like that. I agree with this; I disagree with that. I want this; I don’t want that. And on and on….

It’s downright tiresome.

Some of it is fear, a caution born of many hurts and disappointments.

And there’s impatience. I just don’t have time for every option.

And pride. I should have what I want – now!

The farmer in this Sunday’s first parable is patient. Being a farmer, he has learned to wait on the cycles of seasons and weather. Come the harvest it will not be hard to see the difference between the weeds and wheat. We’ll postpone the judgment till then.

Jesus assures us that God is very patient; God has all the time in the world.

One time, during the revolutionary days of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, I attended a lecture by a famous doctor who had taken his stand against the Vietnam War. Young people flocked from all over Saint Louis to hear him speak. I don’t recall what his specialty was but he spoke for over an hour about the formation of the earth, continental drift, the appearance of life on earth, and evolutionary theory. The crowd was hugely disappointed, and he knew it. He was trying to tell us, “Wait a while. Give it time.”

By 1980 the 60’s revolution had petered out and we were consuming just like our parents. Because we could not wait for the Kingdom of Peace to appear, we settled into the same ruts of consumerism, greed and upward mobility.

We have seen that impatience in every revolution since the French Revolution in 1798. They were ready to kill anyone who stood in the way of their ideals of liberté, égalité, and fraternité. After they had killed the aristocracy and the clergy, they turned on one another. Communists did the same thing in Russia, as do Muslim radicals today. They suppose that by judging and condemning and killing they can bring about freedom, equality and fraternity.

Divided America is caught in the same firestorm. The contenders disagree about everything except compromise. All sides agree that they cannot compromise. Compromise means their ideals cannot be achieved in this world; that we might never see the purity of the American vision realized.

Right now, in mid-summer, they would gather the green plants and sort out the useful from the trash. But a mid-summer harvest will render nothing but mulch!

Living as a Franciscan in community, making all major decision in the company of others, I’ve come to appreciate how long it takes to come to agreement. I’ve seen that my own ideas can change during the process of conversation. Sometimes it’s hard to let that happen. Sometimes I feel compromised by the process, as if I have surrendered my principles. But I also see that if I have my way, not everyone will be satisfied and we as a group will be dissatisfied. If I win we lose!

I’ve come to believe the process is more important than the results. It’s more important that we talk to one another, discuss our differences, modify our expectations, and agree to half-measures than that we arrive at any particular conclusion. Sometimes no one knows where this conversation is going, but it’s a good conversation. The ideal is not the enemy of the good when I see it’s only my notion of the ideal.

As Jesus was trying to tell us today, “The kingdom of heaven will come in its time. Rest assured of that.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday: