Wisdom 12:13, 16-19 / Romans 8:26-27 / Matthew 13:24-43
Every generation had a crisis to face.
For the Pioneer generation it was the crisis of war, where life and death are separated by just a thin line.
For the Merdeka generation it was the crisis of the independence of the nation where the future hung on the balance.
For this generation, it was the crisis of a pandemic, where a viral infection has brought about a great disruption.
But whatever the crisis might be, it is a matter of survival.
A crisis also shows character. It brings out the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the brilliant and ignorant, the best and worst.
When things are going smoothly, a lot of good is taken for granted, and the not-so-good are often overlooked and ignored.
But it takes a crisis to uncover everything above and everything below.
In the gospel parable, a man sowed good seed in his field and all was well and good.
But then the enemy came and sowed darnel all among the wheat.
For a while all seemed well and good until the wheat sprouted and ripened and the darnel appeared as well.
And so the crisis began. Questions were asked and solutions were offered.
The gospel parable seems to give a rather simple solution: Let them grow and then at harvest time they will be separated.
But the teaching point of the parable is this, and we hear it in the 1st reading: God is mild in His judgement and governs us with great lenience.
The 1st reading continues with this: You have taught a lesson to Your people, how a virtuous man must be kind to his fellow men, and You have given Your sons the good hope that after sin You will grant repentance.
So in this current crisis of the pandemic, we see the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the brilliant and ignorant, the best and the worst, all being exposed before our eyes.
It’s not just around us that we see these; we see these in ourselves.
For all the goodness and growth that we’ve seen in ourselves, let us give thanks and praise to God for His blessings.
But for all our failings, our shortcomings, our weaknesses, our sinfulness, we turn to God who is mild in judgement and governs us with great lenience.
We put our hope in God that He will grant us repentance and let us produce a good harvest for God and those around us, so that in this crisis of the pandemic, we will grow in love and that we will help others rise above this difficult times.