As part of my prayer life this year I have been reading from a book of short spiritual reflections by Fr. Richard Rohr OFM titled What the Mystics Know. Early in the book he reflects on Matthew 13:26-27 the “Wheat and the Weeds” (p 15) where he writes about the problems of good and evil and how in the spiritual life we are confronted with this reality, as we look within and see, the wheat and weeds of life growing together within us. I have returned again and again to these short reflections over the past few months as the echo in my heart and I seek to see how the co-existence of good and evil can be a mirror for my understanding of God’s compassion and mercy in my life and the life of His people.

I often counsel and console people both in the Sacrament of Reconciliation and in brief chats that conversion happens both as a sudden and life altering event and as the slow slog through a life of searching for and living in holiness. I remind myself and them that we are called to sow the seeds of grace in blessing in the fields that are often overrun with the weeds of sin and through God’s blessing see the wheat of love begin to grow slowly and steadily. I listen to the fear and sorrow of family and friends who speak of loved ones who have strayed from the path of holiness and grace and how we, as God’s people, seek to witness in hope and call them into the fruitfulness of love.

It is the wheat and the weeds growing together within our hearts that help us to be vigilant and trusting in the mercy of God for all people because we too have reached out and received his mercy. Rohr gives us this short reflection, “Victory over sin is never total but rather a victory over sin’s power to overwhelm us or defeat us. The sacred signs [in the form of stories, images, symbols, or dreams] allow us to live with and walk with and through our sin to God. God’s help does not readjust our false self or polish up our self-image. Instead, God shows us the depths of our emptiness and sin so that we have nothing more to shock or humiliate us.” (p 21)

This month of May, the Spiritual Work of Mercy, Counsel the Doubtful, flows wonderfully from this above reflection. Not to be shocked or humiliated by our sin does not mean to accept it or to allow it to rule our life rather it is a time to open our hearts more fully and completely to God’s healing mercy. When we choose sit in counsel, to listen and hear, to speak and share doubts we become the light of God’s love shine on the weeds of our life.

How do we choose to counsel and be counseled in our life? Each of us suffers doubts about many thing and our doubts about God are compounded by our failing again and again to do the things we don’t want to do and fail to do those we are called to do to better our life and the world. It’s not a new problem…just read the Bible…where in the search for God, the search for peace, the search of justice holy men and women failed over and over again. Yet, the common thread is they continued to reach out to God and live with and work with the sin as they walk to God. The example we are called to follow.

We, as people of mercy, are called to accompany and share our story of walking with God in encouragement and patience. We counsel those in doubt in the reality of conversion and the call to follow Jesus. A conversion that changes our vision of the world and a conversion that asks us to walk through the field of sacrificial love. It is a field filled with weeds. It is also a field, when we choose to work and play in God’s image, we become abundant…30 or 60 or 90 fold…in true joy.

God Bless

Fr. Mark