Let them grow together until harvest

27 JULY (Mt 13,24-30)

In the Old Testament it was the Lord’s command to take off the field of Israel all the world of falsehood, of paganism, idolatry and impiety. Men, things and animals had to be annihilated and destroyed. The cities were also razed to the ground. God required the non-contamination of his land and his people. Applying the law of extermination was mandatory for every son of Abraham. Those were different times.

“When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land which you are to enter and occupy, and dislodges great nations before you – the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites: seven nations more numerous and powerful than you – and when the Lord, your God, delivers them up to you and you defeat them, you shall doom them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy. You shall not intermarry with them, neither giving your daughters to their sons nor taking their daughters for your sons. For they would turn your sons from following me to serving other gods, and then the wrath of the Lord would flare up against you and quickly destroy you. “But this is how you must deal with them: Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, chop down their sacred poles, and destroy their idols by fire. For you are a people sacred to the Lord, your God; he has chosen you from all the nations on the face of the earth to be a people peculiarly his own (Dt 7,1-6).

“You shall consume all the nations which the Lord, your God, will deliver up to you. You are not to look on them with pity, lest you be ensnared into serving their gods. Perhaps you will say to yourselves, ‘These nations are greater than we. How can we dispossess them?’ But do not be afraid of them. Rather, call to mind what the Lord, your God, did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt: the great testings which your own eyes have seen, the signs and wonders, his strong hand and outstretched arm with which the Lord, your God, brought you out. The same also will he do to all the nations of whom you are now afraid. Moreover, the Lord, your God, will send hornets among them, until the survivors who have hidden from you are destroyed. Therefore, do not be terrified by them, for the Lord, your God, who is in your midst, is a great and awesome God. He will dislodge these nations before you little by little. You cannot exterminate them all at once, lest the wild beasts become too numerous for you. The Lord, your God, will deliver them up to you and will rout them utterly until they are annihilated. He will deliver their kings into your hand, that you may make their names perish from under the heavens. No man will be able to stand up against you, till you have put an end to them. The images of their gods you shall destroy by fire. Do not covet the silver or gold on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it; for it is an abomination to the Lord, your God. You shall not bring any abominable thing into your house, lest you be doomed with it; loathe and abhor it utterly as a thing that is doomed (Dt 7,16-26).
Jesus establishes his new kingdom on earth. In the new kingdom you live in a new law. There must be no separation from the others. You have to live with others. In the same place, in the same community, in the one Church. Impiety, idolatry, paganism, sin, transgression, immorality, scandals, the world of evil, all the prince of this world must cohabit with piety, true worship of God, holiness, grace, truth, faith and the hope that are in Christ Jesus, and through Him, in Him, with Him and in each of his disciples. They must stay together in the same field, in the field of God.

He proposed another parable to them. “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man who sowed good seed in his field. While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well. The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

The Christian life is a constant temptation. But this is the law of incarnation.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us incarnate people.