God is continually at work in our souls, planting good desires and virtues. His heart is overflowing with good things for us. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know well the plans I have in mind for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare, not your woe! Plans to give you a future and hope!” Our good God is so good to us, and even in giving us all these good things, we are free to choose them or not.
Our Enemy, Sowing the Weeds
But why, then, do we suffer? If God is so good, why is there suffering? There is so much good in the world, but there is also so much evil. As the master in the parable said, “An enemy has done this!” God wants our good, our greatest good. To Him, our greatest good is our freedom. He desires us to be free so we can freely love him. A forced love is not love at all.
The master in the parable also said, “Let them grow together until harvest.” My sense of justice is piqued. I want to demand that he take care of it right away, but he has the wisdom of experience and tells me to wait. “If you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them.” This allowing them to grow together makes the wheat stronger, and conserves as much of the good seed as possible. While God does not desire our suffering, he will use our suffering to bring about a greater good in us. Because I am free, so is everyone else around me. So, while I may choose a good, others are free to choose something else.
In Matthew 5:45 Jesus says “…for he causes his sun to rise on the bad and the good, and his rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”
Even in our suffering and misery we are free.
Whose Side Am I On?
Am I helping sow the good seed of the Lord, or the weeds of the enemy?
My indifference, my blind conformity, my own prejudices and predispositions…
My sense of justice, my yearning for peace, my desire for love…
Remember that Our Lord allows everything to grow together until harvest time.
Don’t confuse the weeds with the wheat.
