Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field

31 JULY (Mt 13,36-43)

Hell is an essential, fundamental, and primary truth of our faith. Jesus came to save us and salvation is from hell, from eternal death, from the loss of God forever. The eternal perdition is presented in the parable of the weeds as a fiery furnace in which all the wicked and workers of iniquity will be cast. In Psalm it is man himself, the pious and the righteous, who asks the Lord for this eternal punishment, while his enemies are still alive. We are still in the Old Testament.

O LORD, in Your strength the king will be glad, And in Your salvation how greatly he will rejoice! You have given him his heart’s desire, And You have not withheld the request of his lips. Selah. For You meet him with the blessings of good things; You set a crown of fine gold on his head. He asked life of You, You gave it to him, Length of days forever and ever. His glory is great through Your salvation, Splendor and majesty You place upon him. For You make him most blessed forever; You make him joyful with gladness in Your presence. For the king trusts in the LORD, And through the loving-kindness of the Most High he will not be shaken. Your hand will find out all our enemies; Your right hand will find out those who hate you. You will make them as a fiery oven in the time of your anger; The LORD will swallow them up in His wrath, And fire will devour them. Their offspring You will destroy from the earth, And their descendants from among the sons of men. Though they intended evil against You And devised a plot, They will not succeed. For You will make them turn their back; You will aim with Your bowstrings at their faces. Be exalted, O LORD, in Your strength; We will sing and praise Your power. (Psalm 21 (20), 1-14).

In the New Testament there is always this great distinction of faith between heaven and hell, between the just and the reprobate, between blessed and cursed, between living and dead. This distinction is eternal truth, gospel truth, and revealed truth. Denying it, it is declaring conversion, penance, Christian asceticism, holy life, and virtue useless.

“Instead, you inflict injustice and cheat, and this to brothers. Do you not know that the unjust will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor practicing homosexuals nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God. That is what some of you used to be; but now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God” (1Cor 6,8-11). “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, jealousy, outbursts of fury, acts of selfishness, dissensions, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal 5,19-21). We know that the law is good, provided that one uses it as law, with the understanding that law is meant not for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, the unchaste, practicing homosexuals, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted. (1Tm 1,8-11).

The Parable of Jesus teaches us that good and evil until the advent of the new heavens and new earth will have to live in the same field, in the same Church, in the same community, in the same family. Wherever there is man, there is good and evil, there.

Then, dismissing the crowds, he went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. Just as weeds are collected and burned (up) with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.

The time of the end will come with death. Every one will present himself before God to give an account of the good and evil, said, thought, worked while he was in his body. The good is rewarded with Paradise. Evil reproved with eternal disgrace.

Virgin Mary, Mother of Redemption, Angels, and Saints free us from eternal punishment.