Paraboles 101

And When the Weeds Mock the Wheat


We heard this evening at the Vigil the gospel reading regarding the parabole Jesus told of the field planted with good seed, and in the night the enemy comes and plants weeds. In time, it is obvious there is a bit of a weedy mess and the disciples ask if they are supposed to rip out the weeds and Jesus says no, it could also tear up the weaker wheat, so they are both left to grow interspersed until The Harvest (i.e. the Judgment Day.)
The homilist cleverly made analogy to a baseball field where there are umpires, basemen and even 'security' at the ballpark with the good home team and the bad team vying for prominence and a victory.
A fun but imperfect analogy- it would be more like basketball where the weeds can block and intercept a jump and pass elbow to elbow, or elbow in face. But lets stick with baseball for now.

What if the umpires are crooked? Where is that in the analogy. What if the umpires get a christmas bonus for advancing the weeds and administering the weedkill to the wheat? That's more like what happens.
What if the umpires basemen are in the same union as the umpires who get a bonus for administering the weedkill to the wheat? You get a field overridden with weeds, and so much so everyone starts to think that the weeds look like flowers and like they should be there. Ever see a yard so overridden with weeds you think it is some kind of exotic plant- a field full of it-and it is supposed to look like that? Ever notice that even weeds can sometimes have parts that look almost deceptively like flowering parts? If the crooked umpires call 'security' security becomes like The Mob- a garden variety hit job. Weedwhackers to the kneecaps.

That's what happens in a church when the umpires are in the same union as the basemen who are all paid to administer weedkiller to the good seed. The music dies with the good wheat. And no one can tell the weeds for the woods.