Wheat or weed?

Sisters and brothers in Christ, God is the sower who sows good seed in us to help us flourish in this world and prepare us for eternal life in heaven. However, we have a tendency to put our "trust in the deceitful words" of the Evil One who "prowl the earth seeking the ruin of men". As we read in today's first reading, God sees "what is being done" and warns that we "putting [our] trust in deceitful words to [our] own loss"! Do we listen to God's words?

Yesterday was the feast of Saint Mary Magdalene, whom Jesus drove demons out of when she repented of her sins. Padre Pio once told a penitent: "If you have the courage to imitate Mary Magdalene in her sins, why don't you have the courage to imitate her in her repentance?" His words are so applicable to us today. Our God is a loving, merciful, and forgiving God but we have to choose to turn to him for forgive and repent of our wayward ways or we will burn on the day of judgment like the weeds in today's Gospel parable.

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Gospel of the Day

Jesus proposed a parable to the crowds. "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."'"