Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading:Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 – You will grant repentance after sin.

Responsorial Psalm:Psalm 85(86):5-6, 9-10, 15-16 – O Lord, you are good and forgiving.

Second Reading:Romans 8:26-27 – The Spirit himself expresses our plea in a way that could never be put into words.

Gospel:Matthew 13:24-43 – Let them both grow till the harvest.

 

Human beings are prone to being judgmental in almost everything they do. When we look at things, we tend not to see what is there as such but rather what is there in comparison to similar things we have seen before. When we encounter a person, we do not normally encounter the person as he/she appears before us but rather we unconsciously judge whether the person is good or bad, likeable or unlikeable, smart or dull, etc. Many of these judgments are, however, driven by our own utilitarian motives. This is so much so that when we say that a thing is “good”, what we generally mean is that it affects us positively or that we benefit from it. Consequently, when we say that a person is “bad”, what we mean is that we do not benefit personally and immediately from that person. Hence, good and bad become relative terms and no longer objective realities. A person or a thing is as “good” as we benefit from them, and as “bad” as we do not benefit from them. Our perception of things are, therefore, fundamentally defective. This story by Anthony de Mello in his The Prayer of the Frog (Vol.1) illustrates that:

Two women friends met after many years: “Tell me,” said one, “What happened to your son?” The lady sighed as said: “My son? The poor, poor lad! What an unfortunate marriage he made – to a girl who won’t do a stitch of work in the house. She won’t cook, she won’t sew, she won’t wash or clean. All she does is sleep and loaf and read in bed. The poor boy even has to bring her breakfast in bed, would you believe it?”

The other woman replied: “That’s awful! And what about your daughter?”

The grieving woman suddenly brightened up and said: “Ah – now she’s the lucky one! She married an angel. He won’t let her do a thing in the house. He has servants to do the cooking and sewing and washing and cleaning. And each morning he brings her breakfast in bed, would you believe it? All she does is sleep for as long as she wishes and spends the rest of the day relaxing and reading in bed”.

You can now see what we mean by our perception being fundamentally defective because of our utilitarian motives. From the utilitarian perspective of this woman, her son was unlucky because he does everything for his wife, while her daughter was lucky because her husband does everything for her. Because of this defect in perception, our judgments are almost always inaccurate. This is where the drama in the Gospel concerning the parable of the weeds among the wheat comes in. We cannot accurately remove the darnel (weed) from among the wheat in their early stages of growth, since they physically resemble each other. Any attempt to do this using our defective perception could be catastrophic for the wheat. The removal has to be done by the Lord of the harvest himself, who alone has a clear and objective perception to do this accurately on the harvest day.

It is completely natural to worry about the continued existence of evil and evil people in the world. Sometimes we ask why evil people still parade the face of the earth seemingly uninhibited. Why are they not uprooted at once so that the world will become a harmonious and better place to live? The question, however, is: With what type of perception are we categorizing people as good or as evil? If it is with this our defective perception that is driven by utilitarian motives, then our judgment may not be accurate. If our judgments are not accurate, our desired decision to uproot the so-called evil would be arbitrary. In brief, if men were God, the world would be chaotic. The difference between us humans and God is that whereas we are judgmental in our dealings with others, God is “mild in judgment” and he “governs us with great lenience” as the Book of Wisdom tells us in the first reading of today. The reading continues by noting that with the way God acts, he has taught us a lesson on how the virtuous man must be kindly to his fellow men.

If only we realized that God does not want the death of a sinner but wants him to repent and live, we would stop making frantic effort to uproot the people we perceive as sinners and evil. May we allow the Spirit to choose the proper expression when we pray and, stop praying for the downfall of those we perceive as our enemies! Let us stop using derogatory words in our prayers.