A Homily for the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany

+ The thirteenth chapter of St Matthew’s Gospel from which the Gospel of this Holy Mass is drawn presents varying parables of the Kingdom of God. Some are pleasant and reassuring, such as the renown and consoling parable of the mustard seed (vv. 31-32) or the homely parable of the leaven in the dough (v. 33). Yet the famous parable of the sower (vv. 3-9) is chastening in its insistence on the necessity of good soil for the necessary production of abundant fruit.
 
The parable of the weeds sown amongst the wheat (vv. 24-30) which the Church’s Sacred Liturgy has us contemplate on this fifth Sunday after Epiphany is, however, quite distressing in its frank recognition of the realities with which the Kingdom of God on earth – the Church of Christ – has to deal: the reality that the Kingdom of God has real enemies and that at times it will suffer their insidious infiltration. The tranquil growth of the mustard seed may be endangered. The leaven in the dough may lack the ambience necessary for it to effect its transformation of the wheat. Good soil may be lacking, or indeed it may be found to be replete with weeds.
 
An elementary reading of the history of the Church throughout the ages quickly confirms this reality. Indeed, the Fathers of the Church, most notably St Augustine, find in this parable the Lord’s prescience of the terrible curse of heresy and schism that their ages, and many others, including our own, have suffered or do suffer.
 
The instinct of the servants – to uproot the weeds without delay as soon as they appear – is understandable. The patience of the householder, however, is wise.­ In their fight against heresy, the Patristic interpretation of this wisdom is instructive. “Here we are warned,” St Jerome teaches, “lest, before due time, we cut off a brother. For it may happen that he who is today infected by some poisonous teaching, may tomorrow come to his right mind and begin to defend the truth.” St Augustine insists (not without the benefit of personal experience) that “many in the beginning are weeds, and later they become wheat, who, unless patiently endured with while they are sinners, do not arrive at this meritorious transformation.”
 
Indeed, the householder and the Fathers are wise; they are not foolish enough to forget the harvest, the reality of the coming of the day judgement. The patience of Almighty God is not to be understood as a form of divine complacence or religious indifferentism – in our times, as an affirmation of syncretism. Weeds are weeds and they shall rightly be cast into the fire. Not everything that grows up in this world is of God or leads us into God’s Kingdom. Indeed, the Enemy actively sows weeds wherever he can, even at times in the very heart of the Church, in the hope that they will choke or even uproot the growth of the seed of Faith planted in our souls at our Baptism.
 
In respect of God’s patience, St Benedict warns us: “constantly [to] beware, as the prophet says in the psalm, lest God some day behold us falling into evil ways, and turned unprofitable, and spare us for this present time, because he is merciful and awaits our amendment, but should say to us in the future: These things didst thou do, and I was silent.” (Rule, ch 7). Conversion of life, that is to say orthopraxy in worship and daily living and orthodoxy in belief are required of us if we are to belong to the Kingdom of God and be gathered by the Lord into His barn for eternity. Judgement on these matters, which belongs ultimately to Almighty God, awaits each of us – a reality about which the Gospels and the Fathers of the Church are abundantly clear.
 
Seeking the Kingdom of God is, therefore, a serious business, and is not without its dangers. But to be forewarned is to be prepared. If we understand, as did the Fathers of the Church, that not everything or everyone we encounter in the Church of our day necessarily leads us to salvation, we can begin to exercise the necessary prudence in respect of their teachings and commands, testing them always against the teaching of Christ and of His Church in her living Tradition, whilst having constant recourse to His life and love made available to us through the sacraments of His Church faithfully celebrated. It is for Almighty God to judge and deal with weeds, certainly, but we righty spurn their poisonous fruit when we encounter it.
 
Indeed, so seriously difficult a business is the seeking of the Kingdom of God at times that Christian history has constantly seen men and women leave the world to seek God away from the influence of the Enemy in various forms of monasticism. It seems from the constant vocation enquiries our own monastery is receiving that this need is as great in our day as in any other – perhaps in some ways it is greater the more the world is overgrown with weeds. Weeds can be sown in monastery gardens by the Enemy, also, of course. We cannot afford to be complacent.
 
Neither must we become paranoid or give in to despair. Christ’s victory, in which we participate through its renewal on this altar this morning, is decisive. To share in His victory in this life and to enjoy the abundance of its fruit in the next we must conform ourselves ever further to Him today, and to persevere in so doing, no matter what the Enemy does to distract or uproot us. For that grace, let us pray earnestly in this Holy Mass. +