before the time of ripeness

"Despite the nervous scramble of the servants when they discover weeds growing in his field, the master of the house himself does not appear the least disconcerted by this sudden report of sabotage. He immediately knows who has sown the weeds, and the calmness of his reaction hints that, even before he sowed his wheat, he must have realized the probability of such a hostile act occurring. Nevertheless, sow it he did....But the real surprise comes at the master's reaction when the servants, overcome by anxiety, want to dash into the field and pull out the weeds on the spot. Rather than becoming obsessed like them with the presence of evil, the serene farmer....does not think that the power of the weeds to choke is superior to the power of the wheat to grow and thrive....

An abstract conception of 'evil' can trigger in us a reckless compulsion to purge our world prematurely "literally so: before the time of ripeness), according to our own notions of purity and impurity. We always assume, of course, that we are ourselves among the pure, the children of the light, and that we are therefore born purfiers; and yet our very compulsion to purify at all costs bespeaks an ignorance of the essential, which is life and its growth, and also betrays an interior fear of contamination. Rather than abiding secure in my identity as son of the kingdom and one born of God, I seek to eradicate what I most fear for myself, what I fear is perhaps already lurking within me.

The master, by contrast, reacts with prudence and patience in the face of evil. While the fanatical servants want to destroy in the name of purification, the wise Lord wants to preserve, in the name of life. His ultimate objective is to save as much as possible for the harvest. The fact that there is disharmony, vitiation, in the field of the Church and of the world is apparent to all, but only the Lord of the field and of the harvest can see beyong the confused present state of things. The disciples are prompt to take purgation (and, hence, God's judgment) into their own hands. But only on God's explicit command may they intervene radically in the stage of the world, when and as he orders. Until the time of the harvest at the end of the age, it is their business to preach the Gospel of repentance, both to themselves and to the world. Jesus' explicit commands to them have nothing to do with judging and purging. Quite on the contrary, his last words to them would be: Go and make disciples of all nations."

                                            -  Erasmo Leivo-Merikakis