God is the one who separates the wheat from the chaff, but we can be tempted to take this task on ourselves, especially when it comes to our parish. Jeff talks about the Parable of the Sower to explain why we shouldn’t take it upon ourselves to pull up what we may see as weeds at our parish.

Snippet from the Show
There are people who feel that they have a responsibility to pull up the weeds and decide who stays and who goes in their parish … but God’s desire for conversion is greater than the desire for a tidy parish.

SHOWNOTES

Matthew 13:24-30, The Parable of the Sower- He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

5 Reasons to Stop “Weed Wacking”

1. They might need more time.

• Luke 13:6 - And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

• St. Thomas More - “No one, on his deathbed, ever regretted having been a Catholic.”

1. You can’t always tell the difference between weeds and wheat.

• Darnel - a slightly poisonous plant resembling wheat in its early stages of growth. Only when it is fully grown can you tell the difference. The ears of the real wheat are heavy and will droop, while the ears of the darnel stand up straight.

1. We are not smart enough nor do we know the full story of someone else. In other words, it’s above our pay scale.

2. God’s desire for conversion is greater than your need for a tidy parish.

3. We would want others to be patient with us! What if St. Monica had walked away from her son, St. Augustine?

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