The Catholic English historian and politician said many years ago that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. As we look at the world around us, that often seems to be true. Except that’s not true about God who is absolutely powerful, just, and merciful. He’s also—thank goodness—absolutely patient and forgiving.
In the Gospel (Matthew 13:24-43), we see God planting good seed, and the devil planting bad seed. An impatient god would try and remove the weeds as soon as he noticed them. Quite possibly, some of the wheat would be among those weeds. But at harvest time, there would be no doubt and the weeds, and nothing but the weeds, could be removed, gathered up and burned. The Church is like that wheat field. Some members are good (wheat); others are weeds (bad). Unlike wheat and weeds, people can change. The good can go bad and the bad can turn good. What they will become will emerge at the end of their lives. Most of us are a mixture of wheat and weed. Let us turn to Jesus and ask for grace to weed out the bad from our lives and help us grow into strong, healthy sheaves of wheat.
- Father Carl
“If I were to ask you if you loved God,
you would tell me that you did; but that is not
enough. You must prove it.”
~ Thoughts of the Cure D’Ars
