Gospel

‘Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.’
From the Gospel according to Matthew 13:36-43

At that time: Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.’

The Gospel of the Lord

Look at the Wheat!

In our hearts, both the wheat and the weeds grow together, and so they also coexist within our marriage. Between us there are acts of self-giving, forgiveness and tenderness, but pride, impatience, criticism and selfishness also appear. Let us not be so scandalised by the weeds we discover in our spouse’s heart, because they are growing in ours as well. The temptation is to want to pull up our spouse’s weeds straight away—to correct them, change them or make demands of them—when the first conversion the Lord asks of me is the conversion of my own heart. Jesus, however, does not begin by pulling out the evil. He begins by sowing good wheat. He transforms the heart from within, filling it with goodness until that goodness gradually overcomes and drives out the evil. God did not design our vocation so that we would become judges of one another, but so that we might cooperate with Christ, allowing His grace to make the wheat grow ever stronger while the weeds have less and less room to flourish. Today the Lord invites us to stop looking obsessively at the weeds in our spouse’s heart and to learn instead to contemplate the wheat that He Himself has sown there. Christ never loses hope in any of us. He continues to believe in the work He has begun, and He never grows weary of sowing. Let us show our spouse the same patience that the Lord shows us. Let us trust in the power of the seed, even while it is still small. Let us wait, accompany, forgive and love while God brings to growth what we so often fail to see. If we remain close to Christ, listening to His Word, putting it into practice and allowing ourselves to be transformed by His grace, the day will come when our marriage too will reflect His light. Then we shall understand that every moment of waiting, every struggle, every sacrifice and every effort to love was worthwhile. For the destiny to which God calls us goes far beyond merely putting up with one another or getting along well together. He calls us to live a love between us that transforms us and enables us to shine with Him for ever. Take heart! Let us never grow weary of sowing, of waiting and of loving. This is the way!

Applied to Married Life

Catherine: I look back and remember how we began this journey. There was a time when everything I saw in you seemed bad. I found it so difficult to recognise anything good in you.
Luke: It was the same for me, Catherine. We spent many years living badly and hurting one another. When our mentor couple encouraged us to look for the good in each other, I used to think, “What am I supposed to appreciate? She only wants to make my life difficult.” I was so blind!
Catherine: I was blind too. I was convinced that the solution to our marriage depended on you changing. And what’s more, I believed that change was impossible.
Luke: How much we suffered because we didn’t know how to love! Our lack of faith made us live with constant demands, criticism and judgement of one another. And that path leads only to destruction. It sounds so simple to say, yet so difficult to do: to stop focusing constantly on what the other person does wrong and begin giving thanks for and appreciating all the good that is truly there.
Catherine: That’s why we now have to be so patient with the couples we accompany. Sometimes I think they don’t believe us. I see them looking at us as though, for them, it’s impossible to reach a happy ending. But we once believed exactly the same.
Luke: That’s true. We thank God for the mentor couple He placed in our path. Despite everything they saw and all the pain we went through, they never gave up on us. They never stopped trusting, praying and proclaiming to us, again and again, the path that leads to love.
Catherine: And that’s exactly what we will do for the couples we accompany. We will never stop trusting in God’s work within their marriages. We will pray for them, walk alongside them and continue proclaiming that, with God’s grace, there is always hope.
Luke: Even if they can’t see it yet.
Catherine: Even if they believe it’s impossible.
Luke: Because God can make all things new.
Catherine: And now we’re going to pray the Rosary for them!

Mother,
We place into your hands the couples who are beginning this journey. Grant them faith, hope and perseverance, so that they may never give up. Praised be the patience of the Lord! Praised be His Holy Name!