Homily | July 19, 2026 | God’s Patience And The Problem Of Evil | (Episode 202)

Have you ever looked at our world and wondered why God doesn't do something?

Why doesn't He intervene?

Why does He allow evil to continue?

Turn on the news, scroll through social media, you'll see the world is troubled.

Another war, another act of terrorism, another soldier dead, another family torn apart, another child caught in violence, another scandal here and there.

And sooner or later every believer asks the same question.

Lord, why don't you stop it?

Well that's exactly the question Jesus answers in today's gospel.

A farmer plants good seed.

But during the night, while everyone is asleep, an enemy slips into the field and sows weeds among the wheat.

When the servants discover what has happened, they are bewithered.

Master, didn't you sow good seed?

Where did all these weeds come from?

The master answers with five words that explain the entire Christian understanding of evil.

An enemy has done this.

Notice what Jesus does not say.

He does not say God planted the weeds.

He does not say evil comes from God.

He doesn't say good and evil are equal powers fighting one another.

No.

God created everything good.

It is the corruption of what God made good.

It is the work of an enemy.

Jesus even names the weed.

The Greek word for weed is zizania, almost certainly referring to a weed that was called Darnell.

Every farmer in the ancient world feared it.

At first it looked almost identical to wheat.

You couldn't tell the difference.

Even worse, its roots wrapped around them, around the wheat.

You pull it up too early, and you could destroy the crop you were trying to save.

In fact, sowing Darnell into someone else's field was such a common act of revenge that Roman law actually had to prohibit it.

Jesus' listeners immediately understood what Jesus was talking about.

But then comes the question that every one of us has asked.

Do you want us to pull them up?

Do you want us to pull up the weeds?

In other words, Lord, why don't you act now?

Why don't you remove evil?

Why don't you stop the violence?

Why don't you judge the wicked?

Why are you waiting to pull up the weeds?

Jesus' answer surprises us.

He says, No.

Not because he lacks power, but because his wisdom is greater than ours.

Then he gives the reason.

He says, Lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

For years, many people have misunderstood this parable.

They think that Jesus is talking about weeds inside of us.

He's not.

Because later in the same chapter, Jesus explains the parable himself.

The wheat are the children of the kingdom.

The weeds are the children of the evil one.

The question is not why God allows sin to remain in our hearts.

We are called to uproot those sins immediately.

The real question is this Why does God allow sinners to remain in a world instead of judging them immediately and taking care of the evil?

Well, the answer is astonishing.

Because God gives up never gives up the possibility of conversion.

Think about Paul.

Before Damascus, he was hunting and persecuting Christians.

If God had judged him too early, if he had eradicated that weed too early, there would have never been an apostle to the Gentiles.

Think about Saint Augustine, brilliant, restless, far from God.

If God had judged him too early, he would have never had his great conversion.

There would have never been a Saint Augustine.

Think about Peter.

Three times he denied knowing Jesus.

If Good Friday had been his final day, we would have never had the first Pope of the church.

Every saint in heaven has this in common.

There was a moment when God could have judged them, been hard on them, but instead he was patient.

That's why today's reading says something extraordinary.

It says, Your mastery over all things makes you lenient.

Did you hear that?

God is patient because he is powerful.

You see, weak people panic.

Weak people strike back immediately.

Weak people rush to judgment.

Only someone completely confident of the final victory can afford to wait.

God's patience is not weakness, it is mercy.

But we never we must never confuse mercy with indifference.

God's patience is not permission, it is an opportunity.

An opportunity to repent, an opportunity to forgive, an opportunity to come home.

Saint Peter would later write, The Lord is not slow about his promise.

He's patient with you, not wishing that any one should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

That's exactly what Jesus is teaching us today.

The delay is not because God has forgotten justice, the delay is because God desires salvation for all.

Now the gospel turns the mirror towards us.

It is easy to look out in the world, look out into someone else's field and point out all the weeds.

It's much harder to ask, where is God still calling me to conversion?

Where are my weeds?

Perhaps it's resentment you've carried for years, a relationship that needs healing, a habit or a sin that you keep justifying, a prayer life you've been neglecting.

The same patience God extends to the world, he extends to you.

Not because he approves of our sins and our laziness and our habits, but because he loves us too much to give up on us.

One day the harvest will come.

Jesus is very clear about that.

Justice will come, judgment will come, but today, today we still have an opportunity.

Today is a day of mercy.

Today heaven is still searching for prodigal sons.

Today's grace is still changing lives.

Today's saints are still in the process, still being made.

In a few moments we will come to this altar, not because we've already become saints, but because we're practicing Catholics, saints in the making.

Here Christ feeds us with his own body and blood.

Here the divine farmer continues his work.

Here grace does what human efforts never can.

So never mistake God's patience for God's absence.

He is working, even when you cannot see it.

He continues to call even when people resist him.

He's cultivating a harvest far greater than we can imagine.

The only question is whether we will allow his grace to transform us.

And if we do, then one day those words of Jesus will no longer be a promise.

They will be our reality.

This beautiful reality where Jesus says, Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Be a good seed, trust in the Lord, and all will come to fulfillment.

Amen.