Chapter Chaplain's Homily Reflection - LIVE AND LET LIVE

LIVE AND LET LIVE
The main point of today’s readings is patience. The first reading, written about 100 years before Christ, presents a picture of a time when some Jews were forced by the Greeks to abandon their faith for the Greek religion. In the passage we read today, the author of the Book of Wisdom struggled with why God allowed such evil to prevail. But when he later realized that God’s intention was not to destroy sinners but to show them mercy, he praised God’s clemency toward sinners and his patience in allowing them to repent.
Today’s Gospel contains three parables of Jesus plus an allegorical interpretation of one of them: the wheat and the weeds planted in a field. He represents the good with wheat and the bad with weeds. Though the bad can corrupt the good if allowed to grow together, uprooting them too early can destroy the good plants. Jesus uses this parable to explain the nature of the kingdom of God on earth.
Similarly, the kingdom of God on earth consists of good and bad people. In the field of this world, the good seeds (wheat) are the children of the kingdom, and the weeds (bad seeds) are the children of the evil one (verse 38). As such, we are to put up with all humans without discrimination or antagonism. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God is a mixed bag in which sinners and saints rub shoulders. As a result, no attempt should be made to weed out any of them. Jesus adopted this attitude to teach us that redemption is possible. Sinners can repent, while the person considered a saint today can become a sinner tomorrow.
Today, the Gospel is loud and clear: if you want to be a faithful servant of God, you must be prepared to make room for those you perceive as evil. We must heed the words of the Master: “Let both of them grow together until the harvest” (verse 30). So, let our acknowledgment of the presence of evil in the world deepen our gratitude for God's mercy, and let it help us be patient and lenient toward sinners, with the hope that, through our good works and loving concern, sinners may be converted to God.
It is also important to remember that evil is not so much in the world as in the human heart. Any effort to trace the cause of sin and evil will take us to the human heart, where both good and evil exist. The best we can do today is to look into the field of our lives to see what is growing there. This reminds me of what an elderly Native American once taught his children: “There is a fight going on inside me. It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil and creates anger, fear, envy, despair, arrogance, lies, false pride, resentment, and competition in me. The other wolf is good and noble and generates love, faith, peace, joy, hope, humility, kindness, truthfulness, and compassion in me. You, too, have this same fight going on inside you. In fact, the fight goes on inside every person on earth.” The kids thought about it for a moment, and then one of them asked, “Which wolf will win, Grandpa? The grandfather replied, “The one you feed.”
So, while weeding out all the evil seeds around us is a difficult and painful process, our choice of the good and our tolerance will go a long way toward creating an atmosphere of peaceful coexistence. A bit of yeast makes the whole dough rise. Jesus says that a little seed of good can create immense goodness. Therefore, let us heed Paul, who says: “Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21

Chaplain 

Arrowhead Desert Valley Chapter