Zizanion

At Mass this morning at St. Lebert the Great Church in Knoxville, one of the deacons was given the privilege of preaching the homily.  And preach he did, giving one of the best sermons I have heard in a  long time.  I am happy whne a homily is both instructional and inspirational.

Today's Gosepl reading was from Matthew 13:24-33:

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds, saying:  “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a man  who sowed good seed in his field.  While everyone was asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds all through the wheat, and then went off. 

When the crop grew and bore fruit, the weeds appeared as well.  The slaves of the householder came to him and said, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’  He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’  His slaves said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

He replied, ‘No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them.  Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn.”

It is not hard to see who is the enemy who comes in darkness ("while everyone was asleep") because he is not able to stand the daytime (the light of God).  Satan  is subtle, but without a little knoweldge here, we cannot appreciate just how subtle he is.

Deacon was able to provide that information.  Matthew wrote his Gospel in Greek and the word he used for "weed" is the Greek word zizanion.  This is not without meaning, for the zizanion is a plant that was prevelant in the Middle East and - more importantly - was a noxious weed that in its early stages closely resembled young wheat plants and had a life cycle identical to wheat.

This brings a nuance that could be overlooked by a casual reader.  Who are the weeds?  These are the people who reject God and do not follow His Word, to be sure.  But be careful - they may appear as friends to you.  You may have a situation where you say, "Well, my spouse is not perfect but he or she is good enough, and besides, they have a good job . . ." thinking you ad they are like staffs of wheat, growing, but over time someone turns out to be zizanion.  And note I say one of you, because you may well think your origin lay with the good seed and you cannot discern that you may be the weed.  How often small sin can lead to greater, because the enemy allows its weed to take on a false guise that a follower may not see.

But God does - and says, let them grow together, so as to protect the good seed.

By the way, how will we know?  How will we able to see the zizanion?

Look at today's second reading from Romans 8:26-27:

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;

for we do not know how to pray as we ought,

but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings.

Just pray - because no matter how feeble we may think it is, the Holy Spirit will intercede.

Pretty good stuff.  I wish more homilists would take the time to research the context and the language of Scripture while preparing to preach.  I think the worst things a priest or deacon can do is to preach to the lowest common denominator.  Do not underestimate your congregation:  it not only insults them, but leads to poor catechesis.  Because to rely on platitudes may well mean . . . you're zizanion.