A chaplain, teacher, and family counselor with the Archdiocese of San Francisco Father John Jimenez presents his sermons orally and in writing.
“A few years ago, Jayce Duggard, a young woman who was kidnapped as a child and lived many years as a virtual slave of her kidnapper, was asked, in an interview with ABC News, how she dealt with such mistreatment for so many years, if she hated her kidnapper, if she had rage against him for all that he had taken from her?
With the wisdom of the parable of the weeds and the wheat that Jesus teaches, Jaycee answered that she does not hate him. At 31 years of age, after about 20 years of bondage, she is now free of him, and by not hating him, by not thinking about him, by letting go of the past, she is able to remain free, and now live the life that she wants to live.
In the parable of the weeds and the wheat, we might wonder why God allows the weeds to continue to live among the wheat and make life more difficult. Those of us who have worked the soil know that weeds choke off the nutrients, especially water, from the wheat. The wheat gets crowded out by the weeds, just as it is difficult for us to live the moral life when we see some among us getting ahead by cheating, and exploiting and manipulation.
A great burden is taken away from us when we realize that the Lord of the Harvest will burn the weeds at the end of time. We do not have the power to make right all of the wrongs that people have done, all the injuries and hurts caused by sin. Yet, God does, and since God will make right all that is unjust, we then are free. We do not have to put our energy into vengeance or even righteous anger. Rather, we can direct our efforts to the good that is still possible, utilizing the gifts and time left that God has given. We do not know how ling this gift shall last, so why waste the gift of time and goodness on anger.
Science and Anthropology show us that over thousands of years of human civilization, primary steps were taken when humans were able to cultivate weeds to become wheat, over generations of cultivation. In the fullness of God’s time, working for the peace of God’s kingdom, may we all be instruments of cultivating the soil of our culture and communities, such that weeds that survive deprivation and become destructive, instead, with care, become wheat that feeds us.
Father John Jimenez 