Friends, in our Gospel today, Jesus explains the parable of the weeds among the wheat. God’s word creates the Church, the community of those who strive to build up the kingdom. But this Church is never absolutely pure and untrammelled, for God’s ways are opposed by a spiritual power, an enemy. His task is to sow weeds among the wheat—clandestinely, quietly, unobtrusively.

This sort of coming together of good and evil is to be expected. The Church will always be a place of saints and sinners, and the sinners will often look like saints. The enemy of the Church, who never rests, ensures it.

Vigilance in regard to evil is necessary in a fallen world, yet we must be wary of a zeal that, in its passion for setting things right, comes to believe that evil can be dealt with by destroying what is good. 

In the midst of a fallen world, what is expected of us is that we live in hope that at the end, at harvest time, the Master will separate the good from the bad.