Darnell and wheat
By Agnes Chai
July 22 2020
Archbishop John Wong celebrated the Sunset Mass Jul 19 broadcasted live from Sacred Heart Cathedral giving all sinners the hope that the Lord is a God of Love, Merciful and forgiving, but also a just God.
Although the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time presents to us three parables: Parable of the Darnel, Parable of the Mustard Seed and Parable of the Yeast, it was the Archbishop’s intention to focus on the Parable of the Darnel for his homily.
He started off with a short story:
“A certain island used to be a very peaceful place, a real nice place in which to live. But suddenly all this changed, and it became a place of trouble, confusion, fear and unrest.
The good people on this island were very upset. They blamed the trouble on a relatively small bunch of trouble-makers. So, what did they decide to do? They segregated the trouble-makers and put them together in a special part of the island, and build a high fence around them to keep them apart. So, a high fence was constructed. On one side of the fence were the bad people. On the other side were the good people.
Now on the island there lived a very holy man. He was greatly admired and respected by all. The good people naturally assumed that this holy man would be on their side of the fence.
But he surprised and shocked them by taking up residence among the bad people. The good people protested his decision and said ‘Why, you of all people deserve to be on our side of the fence.’
‘You really think so?’ he replied. ‘You assume that you are innocent, peace-loving and right, and that all those others are devil incarnate. Well, you are deceiving yourselves. Who can tell who is good and who is evil? Which of us can say that there is no evil in us or that we have never done any evil? The very thing you condemn in those others are in yourselves. By rejecting your brothers and sisters as beyond redemption, you have committed a great wrong. I am on this side of the fence because I too have done evil. I too am a sinner.’”
Taking his cue from the story, the Archbishop began to preach the Gospel parable of the darnel. “The key words in this parable are ‘darnel’ (presumed to be bad people) and ‘wheat’ (presumed to be good people). We know the darnel looks like wheat when it is growing, and would entangle with the wheat and eventually destroy it.
“The parable also tells us that Jesus, the Son of God sowed the good seed – the wheat, while the enemy sowed the bad seed – the darnel, into the same field, which is the world. Both grew up together…
The preacher continued “Seeing the situation…someone asked ‘Sir, do you want us to go and weed out the darnel? But the Lord answered ‘No, because when you weed out the darnel, you might pull up the wheat with it. Let them both grow till the harvest; and at harvest time, I shall say to the reapers: First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burnt, then gather the wheat into my barn.’”
The Lord allowed both the wheat and the darnel to grow together till harvest time. What does it mean? The Archbishop explained “It means that the Lord allows both the good and the bad people to grow together. Why? He does not want to destroy the darnel. He will never destroy anyone. The Lord always gives opportunity for the sinner to repent of his life and return to the Lord.”
What does this parable mean to us? Archbishop clarified further “Many times, we look at an individual, or a group of people in Church or in our own community, and we try to ‘help’ God to identify the darnel that He might want to get rid of.
“Let us admit it. We love to judge and point our finger at anyone who does not measure up to our standards. We want to keep our family, our community, our workplace, our social group ‘clean’. We think we know who the darnels and wheat are.
“Today, Jesus is inviting us to be patient and to open ourselves to allow God to prune away any obstacles that can prevent the good seeds of His Word to grow in our lives. We need to let God work in His own time and in His own way. Who knows that the darnel we see around us and in us might be for the purpose of leading us to deeper growth, deeper trust and deeper experience of the mercy of God?”
The Archbishop continued to convince his audience with God’s Word taken from the Book of Wisdom that the Lord is our Merciful Judge “The power of God is always great, but He does not use it to punish or bring evil on men because He is gentle and forbearing with everyone. He is the Lord of all, and has power over the just and unjust alike.”
The Book of Wisdom also tells us, he added, “God would not reserve His love only for a few. He would not convert people by sending them punishment or striking them. He acts this way because He wants to teach His people that the just must love all people, not just the good ones; and He wants to give sinners the possibility to repent and convert.”
