Our Lord continues today explaining the Kingdom of Heaven in parables. Last Sunday, we saw a prodigiously generous sower who scatters seed even where it doesn’t seem likely to grow. We saw how the different kinds of soil represent different responses to receiving the Word of God – Christ Himself – through prayer.

          Today, though, we have not just the generous sower, but the enemy who sows weeds among the wheat. This was a real practice of agricultural sabotage that actually happened in the ancient world, when neighboring farmers would sow darnel amidst their competitors’ wheat, driving down yields and thus driving up prices for their wheat. (There is evidence of Roman laws against the practice, and we know that when something is prohibited by law, someone must have been wicked or foolish enough to have done it.)

          What could the wheat and the weeds tell us about prayer? The wise master recognizes the importance of patience to sift the bad from the good. His servants expect quick results. They are the MBA students taught to identify weak links, cut out unprofitable product lines, dump underperforming investments, re-focus on the “core brand,” and put all the momentum into the most profitable arm of the business. Pull up the weeds so the wheat can grow. If only it were that easy!

          You don’t need an MBA to get caught up in this mindset. We all expect quick results. We have the answers to every question at our fingertips, Google and company sapping our spirit of wonder and awe at the mysteries of life. And now we have artificial so-called intelligence to speed up tasks, improve our quality of life, and simplify intellectual and white-collar work in the way that robotics revolutionized the world of manufacturing a generation before.

          The more time we spend immersed in the technosphere, the less human we become, and the less able we are to pray. We expect quick answers and quick progress. But progress doesn’t normally come quickly in prayer and in the spiritual and moral life. Remember the seed on rocky soil: it sprouts quickly, but it grows so quickly upwards that it doesn’t grow downwards – it doesn’t have roots, and it withers in the sun.

          Growth requires patience, but patience is not just the ability to wait. Patience, rather, is the virtue that disposes us to bear present evils with calmness and composure. (Repeat) “Evils,” in this sense, isn’t just morally bad actions. It includes the “evil” of how difficult it is to grow closer to God in a world radically disformed by sin – “made subject to futility,” as St. Paul told us last week.

          Patience must be coupled with persistence. The master and servants do not give up on the field because the darnel or weeds are growing with the wheat. They continue to care for it, hoping for the harvest of wheat, even if reduced, and putting even the “evil” weeds to good use by using them as fuel for burning. In God’s providence, even these “evils” have a good purpose, a greater good to which they can be directed.

          We see this need for persistence in the mustard seed as well, which from a small beginning becomes a great plant. The story of the mustard seed is reminiscent of Zerubbabel, who lead the first group of Israelites to return from captivity in Babylon. Zerubbabel despaired of being able to rebuild the holy city and the temple. But the Lord sent the prophet Zechariah to encourage him: “The hands of Zerub′babel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you. For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerub′babel” (Zech 4:9-10).

          You might have seen this verse summarized, “do not despise the day of small beginnings.” While that’s not exactly what the text says, it’s not a bad summary. We often make the perfect the enemy of the good. “I can’t pray, because I don’t have 30 minutes for mental prayer.” “I don’t have time for the whole rosary right now, so I’ll say it tonight.” “I don’t have a whole hour free, so I’m not going to go to Adoration.” The patient, persistent, courageous, and prudent person does the possible good now, rather than waiting to be capable of a greater good that they may never achieve, trusting that the “mustard seed” of the possible good will grow into something great.

          For the mustard seed to be useful, though, it must be ground. In college, my mentor Mark introduced me not only to the world of Philosophy, but also to the world of really good food. Mark was the sort of person who wouldn’t flinch at paying exorbitant prices for fancy condiments (fortunately he married a French woman whose job paid better than an entry-level philosophy professor, so this didn’t seem to cause too much marital strife). But Mark had no use for stone-ground mustard. When you think of fancy mustard, you probably think of the ones with grains of mustard visible. Here’s the problem: you can’t really taste them. It’s just a trick. You can only taste mustard that’s been ground. French people – the ultimate gourmands – don’t eat “stone ground” mustard, even if you can find ones with fancy French names on the shelves at Meijer or Kroger. Leaving whole grains in the mustard, makes it taste less mustardy. At least, that was Mark’s theory. Twenty years later, I still follow it.

          Sometimes, in prayer, we are being ground. It’s hard. Nothing seems to happen. We’re afflicted with a thousand distractions. We’re confronted with our failures and shortcomings. We’re being ground – until none of the seemingly fancy but actually tasteless seeds are left.

          So often, I meet people who are on the verge of despair – despair over being able to pray, despair over conquering habitual vices, despair over a difficult family situation. But I know from my own life that it’s precisely when I’ve persevered through those greatest difficulties that some breakthrough is waiting right on the other side. It might not be true meteorologically, but in the spiritual life it is often true that the night is darkest right before the dawn. To conquer despair we need patience (the virtue that disposes us to bear present evils with calmness and composure). The philosophers thought of patience as a part of the virtue of courage. We need courageous patience to overcome despair.

          This is just another example of why we need good people in our lives to point out how God is at work, and why we need to point out to others how God is at work in their lives. In the seminary they told us that if you’re your own spiritual director, your spiritual director is an idiot. Having a spiritual director isn’t for everyone. Most people don’t even need or aren’t really ready for a spiritual director, if they can’t devote the requisite time to prayer to benefit from spiritual direction. A lot of people who’ve asked me for spiritual direction over the years really needed a friend, someone with whom they could share honestly about life.

Sometimes a friend is even more helpful than a spiritual director for pointing out how God is at work, because a spiritual director only knows what you tell him. He will have a hard time seeing the things that you can’t see yourself. But friends often can! Some kind of outside perspective is really important. With an outside perspective, you might see that you’re making more progress than you even realize. The weeds are there, but the wheat is growing too.

          But how can it be that we’re making more progress than we realize, and why would we trust that that’s the case? Once again today, St. Paul provides an important clarification: “For we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts [the Father] knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he [the Spirit] intercedes for the holy ones [you] according to God’s will.”

You can make more progress than you realize, because the Holy Spirit is the one really doing the work. He is the one grinding the mustard seeds; He is the one giving you the perseverance, the patience, and the courage; He is one who will help you to do the possible good here and now; He is the one who will sift the good from the bad; and He is the one who will bring a greater good out of every trial you encounter.

The Rev. Royce V. Gregerson

Parish Church of Our Lady of Good Hope, Fort Wayne –

XVI Sunday through the Year, A.D. MMXXVI