Sermon Nov. 10, 2013 Fr. Fattore~The Good and the Bad
St. Chrysostom says that there are three things to observe in today's parable. "First, the Church of God on earth consists of both good and bad. Second, that God is not the author of evil. Third, that God does not always punish the wicked on the spot, but patiently bears with them."
The Church Militant (the Church here on earth) is the one part of the Church that can contain evil within its midst. The Church Triumphant is in Heaven and there is no evil in Heaven. The Church Suffering is the poor souls in Purgatory. In Purgatory there is no longer any sin. It has been forgiven and the only thing remaining for the poor souls is to suffer the temporal punishment that their past sins have brought upon them.
While this visible portion of the Church contains some evil it is also important to note as St. John says: "They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us; but that they may be manifest, that they are not all of us." (1 John 2, 19) While there is evil within the Church it is "not of us". We see this in the parable today. The devil has sown his evil seed among the good. And we know that it is not of the good seed because we can see it as the laborers saw the weeds and desired to go root them out. We see evil side by side with good in the Church and our first desire is to root them out. But, we cannot lest we act too rashly. We are most often forced to just wait and watch. The time will come when they will be separated out. We see this manifested more clearly day by day. As the good strive to become better the bad feel more and more uncomfortable until they leave on their own. Then it becomes manifest to all that even though they were among us, they were not of us.
The second point is that God is not the author of evil. It is not His doing that there is evil among us. He may have allowed it, but He is not the source of it. An enemy has done this. There may be several reasons why God allows this: It may be a punishment for our own failings or lack of diligence; It may be allowed to correct us and inspire us with a desire to improve; and it may be for the edification and salvation of the evil. If the evil sees and mingles with the good he just may become good. Or it may be to weed out the others who are not truly of us. In any case it will ultimately be for the greater honor and glory of God. In the end we will see how God's goodness, mercy, and justice always prevail.
Lastly we must consider the patience of God. The good must suffer the bad to grow along side of them for a time. We have a very limited perspective and so we become impatient. God sees things much differently than we do. He sees from an eternal perspective. His justice will ultimately prevail. It matters very little when His justice is invoked. An eternity in Hell is no less severe for having begun a little later. Nor is an eternity in Heaven any less glorious for beginning a little while later. What are days, months, years, decades, centuries, etc. when placed alongside eternity? They are as nothing.
Therefore, there is nothing to fear if God does not immediately remove evil from our midst. On the contrary there is much to be thankful for. God desires that we perfect ourselves and put to advantage the situation regardless of the outcome for the others alongside us. The evil beside us is an incentive for us to perfect ourselves, to humble ourselves, to pray for his conversion, to love him and desire his eternal salvation. We must learn patience and to suffer wrongs patiently as Christ has done for us.
Above all, we should be on our guard that the evil person next to us does not lead us into the same situation as he is in. It is very easy to be scandalized by evil people. It is very easy to be led to the conclusion that the Church must be evil because She has these evils present in Her physical body. This we must fight against and resist with all our being. While we have pity and compassion for those who have fallen into evil, we must not allow our emotions to take us down the same path out of some sort of misguided sympathy.
They are allowed for our benefit - so that we will become better. They are there for their own benefit so that they can see their mistakes in contrast to the good beside them. Or, they are there for their own condemnation. Having been given the grace to see and hear and still to refuse is to be the seal of their own damnation.
In the end the good and the bad will be eternally separated. The good will be grateful for the justice and mercy of God in allowing them to live side by side with the evil and having benefited from this cross. The bad will be eternally filled with hatred that they never took advantage of the opportunities and graces when it would have been so easy to do.
Views: 70
© 2025 Created by Dawn Marie.
Powered by
