Second Chances
The master replied, “No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.
Let them grow together until harvest.” Mt 13:24-43
16th Ordinary Sunday Cycle A
There was a drug lord who grew rich selling drugs to the youth in his town. However after suffering a stroke that left him half paralyzed, he was converted. He attended a retreat and since then offered his services to his parish, first as a catechist until he ended up a eucharistic minister delivering the sacred hosts to the sick. However his neighbors were grumbling, “Why does God still allow him to live after all the evil he had done. Why is he only paralyzed? Why did he not die all the way?”
God believes in second chances. This is the reason why the bad grass – referring to bad people – are hard to get rid of. If bad people do not die easily, is it true on the other hand that the good die young?
Why does God allow the wicked to live with the innocent if they could be bad influence on everybody? This is the clear implication in today’s gospel where the master did not pull up the weeds but allowed them to grow with the wheat. The first reading from the book of Wisdom gives us the reason. The wise author of the book wrote that if you are kind to your sons, you have good hope for them to repent of their sins. Wis 12:13, 16-19
In our world the good and the bad are mixed up. But do not be mistaken to think that in allowing the bad God does nothing. God is definitely doing something much like the yeast mixed into the dough or like the mustard seed planted deep in the ground. God acts invisibly but nonetheless effectively. You become aware of the good that He has done only in the end.
God does not leave the innocent in the hands of the wicked. As St. Paul assured that Romans “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. He himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.” Rom 8:26-27 Rom 8:26-27
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