Tuesday of the Seventeenth Week in Ordinary Time

Wheat was especially important in the ancient world. It remains important to us—we all enjoy bread—but ancient people depended upon it. Bread was an essential, daily food. Without it, people faced hunger and could not sustain a fruitful life.

Keeping that in mind helps us hear one of the Lord’s subtler points in the parable he explains in today’s Gospel. If you open a Bible, you will often find this passage under a heading such as “The Weeds among the Wheat.” Yet the disciples call it “the parable of the weeds in the field.” Matt 13:36. Their attention is fixed on the weeds, and I think that matters.

The Lord is reminding us that, in this world, there is always some admixture of evil alongside what is good. Wheat is good and necessary. It gives us something simple and comforting: a good piece of bread. Yet weeds grow beside the wheat in the same field. And so it is with every earthly good.

Not long ago, I was in a meeting where we were discussing something everyone believed was very good. Then we had to consider how some people had turned it into something awful. Someone remarked, “There is nothing so good in this world that someone can’t make it controversial in some way.” That is simply how this world is. Even well-meaning people can distort good things and draw evil out of what otherwise seems good.

This is a reality we must face. But it does not mean that there is nothing worth loving or cultivating. There are good and worthy things in this world. They deserve our time and attention, and we should cultivate them. At the same time, evil is always lurking nearby, and we cannot ignore that fact.

So the Lord cautions us: do not set your heart on the things of this world. Cultivate what is good, but do not place your ultimate hope in it. Earlier in Matthew’s Gospel, while Jesus is fasting in the desert, the devil tempts him. Jesus replies, “One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.” Matt 4:4b; cf. Deut 8:3.

Even bread—good and necessary as it is—cannot sustain our deepest life. The good things of this world are not enough. Our minds and hearts must be fixed on God himself.

Sometimes evil is obvious. Sometimes it remains hidden until it surprises us, manifesting itself in ways we did not expect. So be cautious. Cultivate the good to the best of your ability, but do not let down your guard. Above all, do not make earthly goods the foundation of your hope.

Instead, place your heart and your hopes in the word of God, where there is no admixture of error, but only goodness and truth. That word will lead us along the right path.