One of the oldest philosophical problems believers in God have had to address is what is called the Problem of Evil. The problem can be stated very simply: If God is so good, why is there so much evil and suffering in the world? If an all-good, all-wise, all-loving, all-just, and all-powerful God is running the show, why does hatred, injustice, and wickedness seem to flourish? Why do bad things to happen to good people?
How do we Catholics answer this question? How do we reconcile our belief in a good, loving God with all the evil and hatred in the world? Believers typically address the “Problem of Evil” starting with human free will. In the book of Genesis, we read how God creates the light, the water, the earth, the stars, the animals, and pronounces them “Good”. God is not the origin of evil; he did not create anything or anyone evil. Rather, evil enters into creation through the free choice of Man. Evil, discord, war, selfishness, divorce, these things result of man utilizing his free will to rebel against God’s plan.
God created us to love Him, to reflect His goodness, and to be in harmony with Him and with each other, and we said, “no, we’ll do it our own way.” Disease, war, famine, and death enter into creation because of us.
Okay. God is not the origin of Evil, but if He is all-good and all-powerful, why does he allow evil to continue? Well, for one, what good is free-will if it has no consequences. To eliminate the consequences of choices, is basically the same as eliminating the ability to choose. So, to respect our freedom, God allows our choices to play out.
Scripture is clear that the choice of Adam and Eve to eat the forbidden fruit had eternal consequences. But, God in his goodness, immediately after announcing the consequences of sin, announces His plan to redeem us from sin. There, in same chapter of Genesis as we read about the sin of Adam and Eve, God announces the birth of one who would crush the head of evil forever. In the fullness of time, Jesus takes our sins, as if they were his own, and pays our debt with his precious blood. The problem is evil is solved. In Christ, God brings a greater good out of the evil caused by us.
What does the problem of evil have to do with our Gospel today? In the parable of the weeds and wheat, Jesus addresses the problem of evil. Jesus likens the kingdom of God to a field, in which is springing up both weeds and wheat.
The Lord is clear, in the Church, his kingdom on earth, there are both weeds and wheat. There are so many good things going on in the Church, Christians truly surrendering to the grace of the sacraments and becoming the people God made them to be, there is a great amount of wheat. But there also seems to be a great amount of weeds these days. Why does the Lord, the Head of the Church, allow this?
Most of us love the Church very deeply, and sometimes we wonder why there is so much error still around, why are there so many Catholics not going to Church, why don’t the Bishops do something about the liturgical abuses, why doesn’t the Pope do something about the immoralities and heresies amongst the clergy.
Today’s parable addressed the concerns of even those first generations of Christians. Even then, there were Christians who turning away from the Gospel, falling back into sin—Christians who received baptism and Eucharist, but seemed to be filled with vile, immorality, and pride. Paul had to write letters to the Christians in Corinth because some of them continued to engage in perversions like sodomy and incest. He had to write to the Thessalonians because there were rich Christians who refused to celebrate the Eucharist with poor Christians.
Jesus helps us understand that in the earthly Church, in this earthly life there will always be both wheat and weeds. There will be Christians who don’t seem to get it. So, be patient with them. Secondly, it’s not always clear to us how to distinguish between weeds and wheat. Even expert farmers have a difficult time telling the difference between the two while they are still growing. It is only at harvest time when the two can be distinguished. In the end, the Lord will be the judge, who is wheat and who is a weed.
This week, we celebrated the feast of St. Camillus. For many years, it looked like St. Camillus was a good for nothing weed. At the age of seventeen, Camillus joined a group of mercenary soldiers; soon he was engaging in the vices of the military camp—swearing, drinking, visiting prostitutes. He and his father, Giovanni, even teamed up as a father and son con artists, swindling their fellow soldiers. It appeared he was on the straight road to hell.
After years of crime, violence and immorality, Camillus’ father fell seriously ill. To Camillus’ surprise, Giovanni sent his son to fetch a priest. Giovanni made a good confession, repented of his sins and crimes, he received Holy Communion, and died in peace.
This was a turning point in Camillus’ life. His father, a life time gambler, cutthroat, and conman called for a priest in order to die in a state of grace. And this shattered Camillus’ own hardness. Camillus went on to become a priest, and even began a religious order caring for the sick and destitute of Rome.
Sometimes those who appear to be weeds, especially in the foolish years of youth, turn out to be wheat for the Lord. So we must not despair over those who leave the Church or appear distant from God. God is at work in their lives. Just as God can use the witness of Camillus’ father to break the hardness in Camillus’ heart, so too God can use our meager witness, to reach even the hardest hearts, and wake dormant souls out of their complacency
Our job isn’t to be the weed puller, to condemn those who continue to engage in sin. Our attitude towards young, immature or confused Christians should be very gentle. With the immature we should be patient, knowing that Christian growth occurs in the Lord’s time.
We certainly shouldn’t tolerate false teaching, we shouldn’t invite the enemy into our field to sow seeds of error. We should never encourage people to engage in sin. A few years ago, there was a media storm around a comment Pope Francis made…imagine that. He dared to utter those dangerous words, “Who am I to judge?”
In his comment, the Holy Father was basically quoting scripture. “There is only one lawgiver and judge,” writes St. James in his Epistle. “He is the one able to save and destroy. So, who are you to judge your neighbor?”
Neither the Pope, nor any Christian, can point to anyone and say, “that person is definitely going to Hell because of their sins.” Such a judgment is reserved to God alone. Pope Francis isn’t telling us to throw away the Catechism and ignore the Scriptures because everyone automatically goes to heaven no matter what they do or what they believe. He’s just saying, he’s not the one who makes the rules and none of us are either.
Our Gospel this weekend is very clear that there are eternal consequences for rejecting God’s law. There will be a separation at the end of time, weed from wheat, sheep from goats, the saved from the damned, those who accepted God’s grace and those who rejected it.
Amidst the evils of the world, we are called to faith, to gentleness, patience, and the willingness to endure suffering for the sake of the kingdom, for the glory of God, and salvation of souls.
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