Optional Memorial of Saint Sharbel Makhlūf, priest

St Sharbel Makhlouf

Lectionary: 400

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

 

I learned a new word recently; a word I should have known forty years ago. I came across it in my reading and, at first, assumed I knew what it meant and continued to read. Finally, when I realized the author was going to build an entire chapter around the word, I decided to look it up.

Dialectic: the art of investigating or discussing the truth of opinions.

Wikipedia has a complete essay on the different forms of dialectic. Elenchus might demonstrate the contradictions in one’s opinion. Socrates specialized in that. Hegel's dialectic describes the process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Philosophers have developed many forms of dialectic discussion.

In today’s gospel Jesus recommends a dialectic with our atheistic, agnostic, heretical, and skeptical neighbors. Rather than going to war with differing doctrines – yanking out the bad weeds -- we honor those who hold these opinions and allow them space to share their thoughts.

In the process of listening we might discover sympathy with their problem, if not their solutions. For instance, in the conversation about abortion, we might admit that many people – both single and married – refuse to accept the consequences of their behavior. Many pregnant women have been abandoned by their lovers. It’s a very old story, as anyone who can read knows.

Similarly, millions of people face old age, debility, and senescence alone. No one is there for them. Anxious for their own welfare and reluctant to surrender their independence, they seek medically assisted suicide.

We might disagree with the solutions of abortion and euthanasia, but we must agree the problems are endemic and often intractable. We must also admit that our lack of sympathy for persons caught in these difficult places is not helpful. Nor is it helpful to say what they should have done a long time ago, or how they might have avoided this problem.

Dialectic discussion recognizes the situation as it is and volunteers to join the search for a reasonable, responsible next step. Let's face it; some things are not going to go away. Divorce, abortion, gay marriage, nuclear weapons, racism, grinding poverty: all these issues and more don't disappear because many of us wish they weren't here. No one can say where the future must go or how the story will end. We may hope for a better tomorrow, but we cannot see it very clearly.

In today's gospel Jesus predicts a judgement day when the weeds will be bundled and burned while the wheat is gathered into the barn. And he insists that the harvesters will do that, namely angels. Not you or me!

We were expelled from Eden for attempting to own the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We have our approximate ideas of the way things should be, but mostly we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide us in our daily discernment. And go easy on the judgements.