Weeds and Wheat

“The weeds and the wheat.”

One of my most wise and dear friends would say this. It was always in response to some conversation about something distressing. Something about which we are inclined to make judgments. Something we might agree should not have happened: enmity, abuse, injustice, betrayal, despair, and hurt. More deeply, he meant that what is happening “out there” is always a reflection of what is happening in the human heart; our hearts. Where weeds and wheat are both sown and grow.

He refers to the parable of Jesus where someone sows good seeds in a field, but an enemy comes and sows entangling weeds in that field by night. Now they are growing together. The laborers want to pull up the weeds, but the wise farmer says, “No, for in pulling up the weeds, you will pull up the wheat also.” So wait. Be patient. It cannot be sorted out until harvest, in the end.

Meanwhile, it is galling that the weeds are using the same nutrients and soil! Good hearted laborers are understandably indignant. Ah, but now the roots are entangled. You can’t untangle them and sort it out without killing what is good.

So it is in our world, and so it is with ourselves. “Weeds and wheat.” Entangled. Suffering is not a straightforward problem. We can’t root it out by doing this or that. Even on a mass-scale. The mystery is the entanglement beneath the surface. Surface answers will not suffice.

Yet patience is not passivity. To grow, and to help grow is not passive. It is active, and active with trust that life is meaningful because of love. Weeds, and all that sow them seek life that is not life; seek gain at the expense of others. Any and all of us can be caught up in this--it is common in our world, and is called “winning.”

In the end, it yields nothing. It is burned up in the eternal fire of love that is God. Only love, and what is done in love remains. In the meantime: patience; meaning practice, intention, awareness, presence. Good gathers the good to itself. This is not winning, but compassion. There is good in everyone. We get to be part of that growth, no matter how dire anything seems...