THE FAITH THAT TURNS THE WEEDS INTO WHEAT

Mt 13:24-43

Try answering this question: Why is there evil in a world created by God? If that is easy for you to answer, try this: Why does God allow evil to exist side-by-side with the good? Still, an easy question? How about this: Why does the evil doer prosper while the righteous suffer? Now, we pause a long while because this last question is really difficult to provide a sufficient answer to when we are the one who are truly striving to live uprightly and yet we suffer as evil men prosper. This last question may even move us to tears if evil doers prosper at our expense even as we quietly and sincerely struggle to persevere in doing good.

I confess, I cannot give conclusive answers to these questions I throw to you today. I have my own days of confusion and sleepless nights over the issues they raise. I search for any logical and clear explanation but there is none within my limited reach. I cry deep inside when I see a good man suffer while the evil doer prosper. But I cry most when the evil doer prospers at the expense of the godly man.

Why is there evil in a world created by God? Why does God allow evil to exist side-by-side with the good? Why does the evil doer prosper while the righteous suffer? These questions have already been asked by every man even before we were born. It is as old as creation, it seems. But there are no final and definite answers that suffice us yet. Why?

There are no conclusive answers to the questions that opened this reflection because it is a question on evil more than on God. Evil is not only real. Evil is also a mystery. Mysteries are not solved. Problems are. Mysteries remain mysteries to our finite minds. The moment a so called “mystery” has been solved, it shows that it is a problem, not a mystery, in the first place. Mysteries do not search for solutions. Problems do. All problems have their corresponding solutions. That is the reason why they are called “problems”. Solutions are to problems while enlightenment is to mysteries. In our human life and in our life of faith, there are many mysteries just as there are many problems. One such mystery is the mystery of evil in the world where the good and the bad co-exist, and in our selves where the capacity to be holy and the ability to do evil are both present. Before such a mystery, we turn to God who is the Mystery of all mysteries. At His feet we kneel and bow our heads. With Him we plead, “Enlighten us, Lord. How can it be that there are weeds in the field You have sown with good seeds alone? Do you want us to weed out the darnel now? We beg for Your light, O Lord. Speak, Your servants are listening.”

Jesus tells us today what the farmer in the parable proclaimed in the Gospel told his servants, “No.”

When the evil we witness grows and grows and grows, it is difficult to take a “No” for an answer. When evil doers prosper more and more and more, we doubt if it is really a “No” that Jesus should give us for an answer. When the ungodly enjoys life and gets the best and the first at the expense of the godly, we begin to have reservations if the “No” we hear really comes from Jesus.

Jesus insists further, “Let.”

Let evil exist in the world I brought into being. Evil will never destroy the good I have created the world with. Let evil men live side-by-side with righteous men. Evil men may destroy the bodies of the righteous but evil cannot kill the spirit of the righteous. Let evil prosper; yes, even if they prosper at the expense of the upright. I am in the righteous; I suffer in them. They shall rise and shine like the sun in the kingdom of my Father. But the evil doers, unless they repent and amend their ways, will be hurled into the netherworld where they will wail and grind their teeth…not for ten years, not for fifty years, not for a century, neither for a millennium, but for ever.

It entails strong faith in God to continue doing good when we see the good scorned and murdered. It requires steadfast faith in God to live in a world where evil deeds are either praised or excused while good works are snubbed if not suspected of malicious motives. It demands genuinely deep faith in God to be unwilling victims of evil men who prosper at our expense as we struggle to persevere along the path of righteousness. Today, let us pray for that kind of faith.

Our faith may be the size of a mustard seed or likened to yeast, but may it be strong, steadfast and genuinely deep. It is a strong, steadfast and genuinely deep faith in God that softly whispers to us each time we see evil seems to take the upperhand, “Be still, my child. I am God. I know what I am doing.”

We have no conclusive answers why there is evil in a world created by God, why evil co-exists with good, and why evil men prosper while the righteous suffer. But we have faith that conquers evil with good. We do not pull the weeds. We let them grow with the wheat. By our goodness perhaps the weeds may someday become wheat.