Being Happy and David Bowie
The Sunday Gospel in Catholic Churches this week is the parable of the wheat and the darnel about a man who sowed wheat in his field but an enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat. The man’s workers noticed and wanted to uproot the weed but the owner tells them to wait until harvest time then separate the darnel and burn it. (Matthew 13. 24 – 43)
Jesus explains that the owner represents the Son of Man, the field is the world and the good seed represents those in God’s Kingdom. The darnel is the subjects of the evil one. The harvest is the end of the world and the reapers the angels.
This parable helps me to answer the question which came to me while pondering the news this week, ‘where is God in the suffering, discord and disunity in the world. God created a beautiful world and we are making a mess of things. Why does God allow it?
There are those including national leaders who are part of the problem. Those who wield power and see themselves as all powerful. Those who are arrogant and indifferent to suffering, those who lie and manipulate.
But then there are those who are part of the solution. People of good will who will eventually win through, changing things for the better as they go.
In the end the darnel is burned as useless. The wheat is harvested.
God provides the opportunity to be co creators and to build a world of justice and peace which looks to heaven, our ultimate goal.
Martin Luther King said in his farewell speech in 1968 the day before his assassination, “He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.
I pay tribute to John Lewis, the American civil rights activist who died aged 80 yesterday and who marched with Martin Luther King and lived to see the first black American President, Barack Obama.
The darnel can also be understood as our faults and failings which we need to correct, areas where we come up short. This is a life journey and the ‘name of God is mercy.’ (Pope Francis)
In the words of David Bowie, ‘ageing is an extraordinary process where you become the person you always should have been.’