“He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.” –Matthew 13:37
In the gospel today, Jesus spoke three parables. The first one is the parable of the weeds; the second one is the parable of the mustard seed, and the last one is the parable of the yeast. The parable of the mustard seed is my most favorite among the three. I was once so curious how this mustard seed really looked like. I browsed the internet and saw many pictures of a beautiful plant with yellow flowers. The seed is indeed so small, that once it falls into the ground, you cannot easily recognize it, not until it grows and blooms its branches and flowers.
Our Catholic faith can also be compared to the mustard seed. It is Jesus the Son of Man who sowed the seed into His Church. We as the body of this Church and with Him as our head has the task to take care of this so it may grow well, have beautiful branches for the others to shade with, and be fruitful to multiply. This seed is God’s gift to us. It is unrecognizable until it grows beautifully. But just like the parable of the weeds too, the enemy planted these weeds to distract us from growing the way God wants us to be. These weeds compete with us so we may not have good fruits in the future. But fortunately, unlike the plant in the field, God gives us free will to either strengthen our faith or be affected by these weeds from the enemy.
We can also notice in the parable, that the man did not allow his servants to pull the weeds out from the field while it’s still growing, but he told them to wait for the time of harvest and when this time comes, these weeds will be tied in a bundle and be thrown into the fire. Jesus has revealed that while we are still here serving His Church, we can always encounter these weeds which grow with us. The weeds might be those who teach false doctrines, the others might be those who will drag us to temptations and weaken our faith. But another good thing also is that, unlike the weeds in the field, these weeds in our lives can be changed from being bad into a good one if we influence them with our good deeds and teach them the teachings Jesus taught us from the beginning. Instead of pulling them away from us, let us help them become better plants so when the time of judgment comes they would not be tied in a bundle and be thrown into the fire.
To sum everything up, we have the options to either become a good plant and be fruitful, or be eaten up by the weeds, or become a good influence on the weeds so they will be better plants too. May we take care of this mustard seed in our hearts and grow in faith beautifully just like its flowers. In this time of the pandemic, may we not be like these weeds to our fellow as many of us suffer in hunger and become jobless. May we become hope to them even though we can’t provide the material things, let us just guide and help them spiritually. Let us lessen the hatred our community has these days. If we can no longer control what is happening, may we be an encouragement to the others to cling more to God and pray for His mercy. May we be like our Mother Mary and follow her humbleness as a servant of God.
Happy Sunday!
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