Mt 13,36-43 – Tuesday of the XVII Week of Ordinary Time
«He who sows the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world. The good seed is the children of the Kingdom; the tares are the children of the Evil One.” The explanation that Jesus gives of the parable in today’s Gospel asks us a question that perhaps we very often avoid: to whom do we belong? It might seem like an abstract question, but it actually concerns the concreteness of our every day. Because we can continually put ourselves at the service of good or evilbecome instruments of the Holy Spirit or lend something of ourselves to the logic of the accuser. Let’s think about the words. A word can lift a person up or destroy them. It can defend someone or fuel a rumor.
It can reconcile or divide. Very often we do not realize that, through what we say, we can lend our voice to the grace of God or to the logic of evil. The same goes for our actions. A gesture can become the concrete way through which someone experiences the love of God, or it can become the instrument through which evil enters the life of another. Nothing we do is completely neutral. Each of our choices contributes, in some measure, to sowing something in the field of the world. But we must be careful not to turn this parable into a way to too easily divide humanity into good and bad.
The first question is not about others, but about ourselves. We don’t have to go around deciding who is wheat and who is weeds. Instead, we must continually ask ourselves what seed we are allowing to grow within us and what logic we are serving through our choices. Ultimately, belonging to God means choosing every day to put what we are at the service of good. Our intelligence, our words, our time, our relationships they can become instruments of his grace. What we serve slowly shapes us, and the choices we make every day reveal who we have truly decided we belong to.
Tuesday 28 July 2026 – (Tuesday of the XVII Week of Ordinary Time – Even year)
