Today we have another parable involving sowing but this time it is not the sowing of the Word but of evil. It helps us to understand something of the nature of evil which has plagued thinkers throughout history that has even led some people to become atheists when they despair of evil in a world where God is said to be love. Often it is interesting that those who make such a decision have not actually experienced much suffering themselves! Maybe they are more afraid of their own capacity to deal with evil rather than recognising the power of God to transform and overcome evil through love? In the parable today it is the enemy and not God who sows the evil in with the good. The evil, in fact, grows with the good and can be difficult to distinguish from it or is entangled with it. The danger is that trying to remove evil absolutely, as if we ourselves know how to do it, we will damage the good. God, who is the only true arbiter of good and evil, reserves to himself how to deal with the eventual harvest. After all it is the angels who will do the reaping (Mtt 13: 39) It is up to us as the workers to keep working the land so that the good can be brought to harvest and remain forever. In the book, Daily Prayer with Mother Teresa she states: "We deliberately renounce all desires to see the fruit of our labor, doing all we can as best as we can, leaving the rest in the hnads of God." (p. 118)
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