The Patience of God

Today, Jesus gives us three parables about the growth of God’s kingdom. He says the kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sows good seed in his field only to find his enemy sows darnel all through the wheat. Jesus also says the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. And in offering us the third parable, Jesus says the kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened.

The Scripture scholar, Tom Wright, says: “These parables are all about waiting and waiting is what we find difficult.” The farmer waits for harvest time, the birds of the air must wait till the seed is fully grown and the woman must wait till the leaven has spread through all the dough.

The darnel that Jesus talks about is a poisonous plant whose roots would become intertwined with the rest of the wheat crop. It would be difficult to remove it without damaging the wheat. The farmer told the servant to wait. Let them grow together, and then only at harvest time will there be a good harvest.

At the heart of the parable of weeds and the wheat is the note of patience — not just the patience of the servants who have to wait and watch, but the patience of God himself. God didn’t, and doesn’t, enjoy the sight of a cornfield with weeds all over the place. But nor does he relish the thought of declaring harvest-time too soon and destroying wheat along with weeds.

Pope Benedict XVI, when he was Cardinal, addressed catechists and religious leaders in December 2000. He talked about the temptation of impatience, the temptation to insist on immediately finding great success and large numbers. He believed that the new evangelisation means never being satisfied with the fact that, from the grain of mustard seed, the great tree of the universal church grew — but it means to dare and, with humility, to leave up to God the ‘when’ and ‘how’ it will grow. He says that “large things always begin from the small seed and the mass movements are always ephemeral.”

Lord fill us with your wisdom to see things as you see them. Give us patience to trust that your spirit is working in our lives and in your church. Give us the humility and confidence to understand that your kingdom is not a thing, a social or political structure, a utopia. The Kingdom is you — present and acting and growing in the world, in our lives and in our hearts.