Wheat, Tares And The Age To Come

I've been thinking about the wheat and the tares. I've been thinking that the parable describes the condition of my own heart.


There is a point, at the sowing, when accepting and rejecting seeds (logismoi, thoughts) is possible. With attention and training and by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, one can often recognize the seed being sown by the evil one and reject it before it grows--or grows very much.


However, it seems in my stubborn heart there are many wicked plants that have established themselves among the wheat. The wheat and the tares have grown up together, and I either can't tell the difference very well, or my attempts to root out the established tares in my soul result in anxiety, grumpiness, despondency, anger or other ungodly passions that seem to destroy what little wheat of virtue there is in my soul.


Attempts to pull some weeds only and consistently result in bad fruit. I cannot do it without also killing what I am trying to nurture.


Really, only the angels can separate the well established tares from the wheat without destroying the wheat. And this only happens at the end of the age.


But what does the Church teach us? The end of the age has already begun (e.g. Heb. 9:26). It is now and not yet. Even now, if for a moment we can transcend this age, the angels can work in our hearts. Even now, I can offer my heart and mind to God, full of mixed fruit, and the angels can sort it out.


This is one of the reasons why we need the prayers of the Church. It is often in prayer and contemplation that we, for a moment, seem to transcend this age and (as Mother Victoria said to me) sense the angels' wings. Here the angels work in our heart separating out "all that offends."


We do what we can, and what we can't do, the angels do for us. In the age to come.