Wise patience

Today's readings: Wisdom 12, 13. 16-19; Romans 8, 26-27; Matthew 13, 24-43.

We all dream of a world spared of all evil. But as St Augustine remarked, humanity lives in the era between creation and consummation. We may indeed live in hope that one day, evil and suffering will be taken away. But the question remains: "How are we to live in the meantime?" The belief that God "cares for everything" is a major challenge today in our struggle to come across as credible. Our daily security comes from elsewhere and we cannot afford to have 'weeds' in our garden, let alone, as today's parable suggests, to let wheat and weeds grow together.

Reading the parable of the wheat and weeds in today's Gospel may leave us disappointed. The parable is a realistic affirmation of the reality of evil and Satan, as well as an alarming declaration that God may even be hindered by the madness and selfishness of humanity in His way of putting things right. It may sound unrealistic, if not frustrating, but the parable suggests that there will be a separation between the just and the unjust only at the final judgment. But do we have to wait that long to see justice done?

There are times when we want to see that justice is done, and now. Just as with the parable of the sower that precedes it, Jesus is clearly commenting on the mixed reception accorded to his words regarding the kingdom of heaven. But more specifically, today's parable counsels patience and tolerance, given that at every point in time our insight is probably partial.

Our generation is one of instant gratification. We want it all, and now. We tend to be impatient, we can't wait. Time is money. We are all driven by the mentality of having everything at the click of a button and from the comfort of our homes. Where justice is concerned, we all hold on to the truth that justice delayed is justice denied.

So we are impatient with the presence of evil in the world. This was not only a problem for the servants of the parable. The history of Christianity itself has been a history of those intent to pull up the weeds from the wheat, to eradicate the doers of evil from the world.

But today's three readings taken together offer a very different message. What Paul affirms, that "the Spirit comes to help us in our weakness", is highly significant. Given our often misplaced priorities and our particular way of judging reality, we do not even know how to pray and what to pray for. Wisdom, on the other hand, explains that God "governs us with great lenience".

If we are led by the Spirit, then we will find our way as virtuous men and women and we will receive the wisdom to face the music. But if instead we are impatient and our urgent concern is to put things right our way, then it becomes easier for us to get stuck in our ruts. The way the Scriptures speak to us about God and the way He relates to us and to the world, always reveals how distorted our concepts are. The way doctrine and theology usually express themselves, and our religiosity normally suggests, leave much to be desired. The God of revelation is not the God of philosophy, and believing in the God of Jesus Christ is not the same as believing in a supreme being we call God.