“Let the weeds and wheat grow together until the harvest…”
The Feast of Saint Patrick is a time to consider who we are in the context of our faith. It brings us to reflect, not just on what it means to be a person of faith in Ireland today, but also how people of faith might contribute to Ireland, and indeed the world, today. Like Christ, his Lord and Master, Patrick came, not to be served, but to serve (Matt 20:28, cf. Confessio 23). Patrick came, not to take, but to give.
The parable the Liturgy puts before us today, like many parables, is open to being read in various ways. It would be easy to cling to its words, and turn them into the battle cry for a crusade about the ills of the world, making of them a justification for a fuga mundi, a flight from the world as it is. But this parable is rooted in God’s perspective on our world: the wheat is growing. Inár measc atá Ríocht Dé, beo agus beomhar sa domhan mhór, pé mar atá sé.
