Wheat witness

The relationship we have with God is not one sided. The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary emphasize that we choose to live in relationship with God and we demonstrate by our life the reality of our acceptance of His invitation. In the passage from the Book of Exodus, we read a description of the memorial built by Moses to witness to the Covenant which would be demonstrated by the adherence of the people of Israel to the Commandments which God had delivered to them through Moses. The ritual of the cutting of the Covenant is explained by Friar Jude Winkler as witness and acceptance and understanding of the people about the choice they are making between life and death. The psalmist praises the Covenant of the people with God with brings Life. The Gospel from Matthew is the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. The parable form of teaching is very much in the style of the rabbi of Jesus time. We are attracted by the story. We need to be aware that there may be an illogical or paradoxical proposition in the text with which we need to dialogue and dispute. Some commentators note that there are weeds which we want to remove from the wheat of our lives. The life style which pursues power, privilege, pride and pleasure will contain weeds of selfish habits which can and should be plucked from our lives. The struggle of faithful believers against some of the weeds in their lives is a long battle. This parable is interpreted by Friar Jude as containing the message that God is extremely patient and gives us time to work these weeds from our lives. The Evangelist may have been, as we often seem to be, impatient with the inaction of God to clear out the “bad” influences from the community of faithful. Let the relationship we have with God open our eyes to the weeds and give us the wisdom to work with God to bring our lives to be witness to our relationship with the Divine.