I Vangeli per le Famiglie - XVI Domenica - Anno A - "Il Grano e la Zizzania" - 19/07/26

www.chiesadomestica.org From the Gospel according to Matthew Mt 13:24-30 Jesus put another parable before the crowds, saying: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. The servants of the householder came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?' He answered them, 'An enemy has done this.' The servants said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?' “No,” he replied, “lest in gathering the weeds you uproot the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, ‘First gather the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” The Word of the Lord. ______________________________ Dearly beloved, Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel, in which Jesus continues with the metaphor of the sower to illustrate what the Kingdom of God consists of. This time the metaphor is that of the wheat and the weeds sown in the heart of man, respectively by God and the devil, by the forces of evil. The Lord speaks to us of God’s patience in allowing both to grow so as not to risk uprooting the good wheat along with the weeds. Indeed, in many life situations, especially the most difficult ones, it is difficult to distinguish which inspirations come from God and which from the evil in which we are all immersed, especially today, when evil can use very powerful means of communication to insinuate itself within us, masquerading as good. The Lord, however, invites us to be vigilant, emphasizing how evil sows weeds "at night when everyone is asleep." It is not for nothing that Jesus' final words to the apostles in the Garden of Olives were "watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation." At the same time, with the metaphor of the angels who will come at the end of time to gather the wheat into the barns and burn the weeds in the fire, he reminds us that it is precisely moments of trial, the most difficult and painful ones—like those that will precede the end of time—that bring about discernment. First and foremost, between the people who live next to us, between those who are with us only out of self-interest and those who truly love us. "A true friend is seen in times of trial." But then also within ourselves, as Dante reminds us with the metaphor of the journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven: "here your nobility will be revealed." What then should we do to avoid being caught unprepared? Jesus asks us to be vigilant to prevent evil from sowing temptation in us. In a famous satirical novel, "Letters to Screwtape," written by British theologian and novelist C. S. Lewis, an elderly devil, Screwtape, writes letters to his young nephew Wormwood to teach him how to effectively tempt men. The point is this: never tempt people with blatant temptations; they will easily notice. Instead, tempt them with seemingly innocuous temptations, small sins that lead one to say, "What harm is there in it, what could it be?" People like this, by adopting seemingly harmless bad habits, will find themselves at the bottom of the abyss without realizing it, without knowing how they got there, making it very difficult to escape. On the other hand, Jesus gave us an infallible criterion for understanding where good and evil truly lie: the logic of the cross. Certainly, when we are in doubt about the right choice to make, let us ask ourselves what requires the most love and sacrifice: we will immediately know what the Lord wants of us. Let us then take advantage of this time of vacation to look into our hearts, to identify those seemingly harmless but far from it lapses, to eliminate them from our hearts, and above all, if and where the Lord calls us to courageous choices on which the salvation of others and therefore our own depends, let us draw from God's grace the courage to make them. A hug Gf