In the first reading today from Exodus 33 and 34, we see this very special relationship that Moses had with God. No one before, nor anyone after, until Jesus, had this kind of relationship. “The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another.” Imagine that! Moses actually looked upon the face of God! Simply by virtue of the fact that Moses lived through it shows the special place that he occupied.
In the Gospel reading from Matthew 13, Jesus explains the parable of the weeds in the field. This is where a man sows good seed in his wheat field and an enemy comes during the night and sows weed seeds. The man tells his servants not to pull the weeds, but that they would be separated at the harvest. Jesus explains that the sower is the Son of Man, the good seed the children of the Kingdom, the weeds are the children of the Evil One and Satan the one who sows them. At the end of time, the weeds will be thrown into the fire. “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.”
So, how does one know which is a weed? Jesus said, “all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.” This often makes me wonder whether I’m a wheat or whether I’m a weed. I suppose that at any given time on any given day, I could be one or the other. But I try each day to be more wheat than weed. Sometimes I think that people like to make sport of trying to determine who is wheat and who is weed. In the end, that is God’s call. It would do us well to concentrate on making sure that we are wheat, and that we encourage others to be wheat.
Father, forgive us for the times that we are weeds. Help us to always strive to be wheat for the Kingdom. Amen.
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