Wheat weeds and good luck charms

In his reflection today on the texts of the Roman Catholic Lectionary, Jay Carney comments that “judgment is not the most popular of theological themes in the 21st century, an era that prefers a God of therapeutic affirmation.” There is tension today between those who are addressed at the Temple, in the passage from the Prophet Jeremiah, as people who treat the Temple, in the words of Friar Jude Winkler, as a good luck charm and the worship which Jeremiah exhorts which is a continuous call to conversion of our attitude toward God and others. The theme of the final judgement (Matthew 25:31-46) is strongly presented in the Gospel of Matthew. The text today presents some insight on the mercy and patience of God, which Friar Jude advises we not presume upon, that does not act in a rash manner to remove the evil from the good. In our human nature that separation of the wheat from the weeds is an internal matter which is more nuanced than knowing where will fail and pulling that out of our being. Don Schwager comments Augustine saw the conflict as one between two kinds of love, one holy and one which is selfish. Friar Jude often uses the model of vertical and horizontal aspects to our life with God. The vertical is our struggle to love God continuously and completely and the horizontal is our struggle to love others who Jeremiah identifies as the most disadvantaged, widows, orphans and the resident alien. We are wheat and weeds and we live with wheat and weeds in our daily encounters with others. Our patience and mercy is modeled on that of God who is always encouraging our growth and conversion prior to the time of judgement.